Lulu and tenth studio album (2011–present)
On June 15, 2011, Metallica announced that recording sessions with singer-songwriter Lou Reed had concluded. The album, titled Lulu was recorded over several months, and resulted in ten songs based on Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu” plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box. The album was released on October 31, 2011.
On October 16, 2011, Robert Trujillo confirmed that the band was back in the studio and writing new material, stating “The writing process for the new Metallica album has begun. We’ve been in the studio with Rick Rubin, working on a couple of things, and we’re going to be recording during the most of next year.”
Metallica were due to make their first appearance in India at the “India Rocks” concert, supporting the 2011 Indian Grand Prix. However, the concert was cancelled when the venue was proven unsafe. Fans raided the stage during the event and the organizers were later arrested for fraud. Metallica later made their Indian debut in Bangalore on October 30, 2011. On November 10, it was announced that Metallica would play at the Download Festival at Donington Park, England, headlining the main stage on Saturday June 9, 2012, and that they would be playing the The Black Album in its entirety.
From December 2011, Metallica began releasing songs online that were written for Death Magnetic, but were not present on the final album. On December 13, 2011 they were released on Beyond Magnetic, a digital EP release only on iTunes.
Also in December Metallica celebrated its 30 year anniversary by playing 4 shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco. The shows were exclusive only to Met Club members and tickets were only being charged at $6 (or 19.81 for all 4 nights). The shows consisted of songs spanning their entire career and guest appearances by multiple artist that either helped or influenced Metallica. These shows were notable for having Dave Mustaine, Jason Newsted, Glenn Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne, Apocalyptica, members of Diamond Head, King Diamond among others join Metallica on stage for all appropriate songs.
On February 7th 2012, Metallica announced that they were going to start a new music festival call “Orion Music + More”, which will take place on June 23rd and 24th 2012 in Atlantic City.Metallica also confirmed that they will also headline the festival on both days and will perform two of their most critically acclaimed albums in their entirety: their 1991 eponymous fifth release (“The Black Album”) on one night and 1984′s Ride the Lightning the other.So far 16 metal and rock bands are slated to perform at Orion which includes Avenged Sevenfold, Arctic Monkeys, Fucked Up, The Sword and others.
Style and lyrical themes
Metallica is influenced by early heavy metal and hard rock bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Scorpions, New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Venom, Motörhead, Diamond Head, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden, as well as early punk rock bands such as the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and the Misfits. Early Metallica releases contained fast tempos, harmonized leads, and nine-minute instrumentals. Steve Huey of Allmusic said that Ride the Lightning featured “extended, progressive epics; tight, concise groove-rockers”. Huey felt Metallica expanded its compositional technique and range of expression to take on a more aggressive approach in following releases, and lyrics dealt with more personal and socially conscious issues. Lyrical themes explored on Master of Puppets included religious and military leaders, rage, insanity, monsters, and drugs.
In 1991, with new producer Bob Rock, Huey felt Metallica simplified and streamlined its music for a more commercial approach to appeal to the mainstream audience. The band abandoned its aggressive, fast tempos to expand its music and expressive range, said Robert Palmer of Rolling Stone. The change in direction proved commercially successful as Metallica was the band’s first album to peak at number one on the Billboard 200. Metallica noticed changes to the rock scene created by the grunge movement of the early 1990s. In Load (an album that has been described as “an almost alternative rock” approach), the band focused on non-metal influences and changed musical direction. Moving away from lyrical themes dealing with drugs and monsters, Metallica’s new lyrical approach focused on anger, loss, and retribution. Some fans and critics were not pleased with this change, which included haircuts, the cover of Load, and headlining the alternative rock concert Lollapalooza. David Fricke of Rolling Stone described the move as “goodbye to the moldy stricture and dead-end Puritanism of no-frills thrash” and called Load the heaviest record of 1996. With the release of ReLoad in 1997, the band displayed more blues and early hard rock influences, incorporating more rhythm and harmony in song structures.
St. Anger marked another large change in the band’s sound. Guitar solos were excluded from the album, leaving a “raw and unpolished sound”. The band used drop C tuning, and Ulrich’s snare drum received particular criticism. New York Magazine’s Ethan Brown noted it “reverberates with a thwong”. Lyrics on the album dealt with Hetfield’s stint in rehab, including references to the devil, anti-drug themes, claustrophobia, impending doom, and religious hypocrisy. At the advice of producer Rick Rubin, for its ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, the band returned to E tuning (though all songs were tuned half step down live) and guitar solos, and adapted Middle Eastern influences.
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