Just last week Metallica surprised us all when they released the new song “Hardwired” off their next album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.
While that doesn’t release until November, the hype is already underway, which is why Spotify has launched an ongoing series that documents the history of the world’s most popular metal band.
This 8-minute long doc is fantastic and highly entertaining, providing new insight that I’ve yet to learn to go along with stunning never-before-seen footage.
Chapter 1 recounts the band’s early years and how James Hetfield started Metallica with Lars Ulrich, who he says was rich and had a lot of records (pretty metal). There’s also the shocking revelation that the band was sorta, kinda formed because Lars had a connection to a record label, a huge shortcut in a world of tape trading.
Chapter One: Metal Milita … How did an army of tape-trading penpals help a group of pimply misfits “go viral” in 1982? Metal Militia recounts the story, from Lars Ulrich’s chance encounter with Motorhead in a London rehearsal space to some pretty weird personal ads and the arrival of Cliff Burton.
Check out three more chapters, available only on the Spotify mobile app in the US, UK, Sweden, and Germany.