METALLICA: Video Footage Of Entire 27-Minute 'Orion Music + More' Press Conference

June 27, 2012

METALLICA held a press conference last Friday night (June 22) at the popular Atlantic City, New Jersey concert venue Bader Feld ahead of this past weekend's two-day festival Orion Music + More, which the band curated. Check out footage of the entire 27-minute question-and-answer session below.

METALLICA played its 1984 album, "Ride The Lightning", in its entirety for the first time ever during its Saturday headlining set, while doing 1991's "black album" on Sunday. The band played both albums backwards, from the last song to the opening number.

Other acts at the show included AVENGED SEVENFOLD, VOLBEAT, GHOST, CAGE THE ELEPHANT, SEPULTURA, GASLIGHT ANTHEM, ARCTIC MONKEYS and more.

The event also featured exhibitions and events based around each METALLICA's personal hobbies, such as a film festival curated by drummer Lars Ulrich, a custom car show presented by frontman James Hetfield and a horror memorabilia exhibit from guitarist Kirk Hammett.

When asked why METALLICA would want to do their own festival, James Hetfield said in a recent interview, "First of all, because we can. Why wouldn't you? We're just trying to bring a little more of a mix to what is going on. . . . I think the Europeans are able to look at a festival more as an event than 'my favorite band is playing.' We're not necessarily trying to reproduce that in the States, but we'd like to bring a little taste of that here."

Regarding the significance of the "Ride The Lightning" and "Metallica" albums, Hetfield said, "'Ride The Lightning' started to splinter us off from your SLAYERs and other thrash bands. A song called 'Fade To Black' was an instant thorn in the side of the metal community. It was the first veering off the studded path. [The Black Album] became the album, I guess, that people needed to have. It's a gateway for people to get into METALLICA."

The Rock it Out! Blog has posted a seven-minute video recap of Orion Music + More. Check it out below.

Press conference:

Rock it Out! Blog video recap:

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