Watch Metallica’s Acoustic Covers Set For MusicCares
Metallica have spent the last eight months or so doing really cool shit, from their weird-but-fun concert flick Through The Never to their one-time-only sets at the Apollo and Antarctica to Kirk Hammett’s horror-movie festival to their wildly anachronistic performance of “One” at the Grammys to their fucking awesome Dio tribute “Ronnie Rising.” In that time, they also released a very encouraging new original song, “Lords Of Summer,” which may or may not appear on their forthcoming album, their first since 2008’s Death Magnetic, recording for which will reportedly begin this fall. I’m guessing most of these random appearances are efforts to reintroduce Metallica to the world in preparation for that new album — and maybe rebrand the band as something other than “the guys who brought you Lulu” — but in any case, they seem to be having a blast, and for the most part, they’re giving more than they’re getting: If you’re a Metallica fan and you’re not enjoying this moment in their career, you’re absolutely robbing yourself of some unexpected, sublime joy. Last night, the band did a four-song acoustic set at the 10th Annual MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert at Los Angeles’ Club Nokia. Needless to say, no one will ever make the case that Unplugged is the best look for Metallica, but (A) MusiCares is a charity with a pretty worthwhile mission, and (B) Metallica delivered an unusual set of covers during their brief time on stage: Rare Earth’s “I Just Want To Celebrate,” Deep Purple’s “When A Blind Man Cries,” the Beatles’ “In My Life,” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Diary Of A Madman” (Ozzy was being celebrated at the event). Check out fan-filmed video of all four songs below.