‘Beyond Magnetic’

METALLICA‘s four-song EP called “Beyond Magnetic”, which was made available digitally in December, and as a physical CD in January, will be released on vinyl to celebrate Record Store Day on April 21. The effort consists of the quartet of previously unheard tracks that the band unveiled in concert in December during its 30th-anniversary celebration. All four tunes — “Hate Train”, “Just A Bullet Away”, “Hell And Back” and “Rebel Of Babylon” — were recorded during the sessions for the band’s 2008 “Death Magnetic” album but left off the final track list. The studio versions of all four songs — all rough mixes — were sent to METALLICA fan club members one at a time, after each song was performed live during each of the band’s four shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

Commented the band: “We’ve always been big supporters of our friends at independent retail and the annual event the third Saturday of each April… we even helped kick off the first year in 2008 with an in-store appearance at one of our hometown stores! To add to the fun, this is no ordinary black vinyl release, but instead will be on silver vinyl with an exclusive METALLICA sticker included in the package. Look for the EP on the special Saturday release date at your favorite local record store and on Metallica.com. . . Our international friends should stay tuned for details about a release outside of North America… specifics are still being worked out with our label.”

About Record Store Day: Record Store Day is managed by the Music Monitor Network and is organized in partnership with the Alliance Of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition Of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale.

Record Store Day takes place annually on the third Saturday of April.

METALLICA previously stated about the four songs that made up “Beyond Magnetic”: “During the ‘Death Magnetic’ album sessions in 2007 and 2008, we originally recorded 14 songs. When it came time to pick the songs for the final album, we decided on 10 songs that you’ve all come to know over the last three years. Some of you may have heard bits and pieces of those other songs on ‘Mission Metallica’ (remember ‘Mission Metallica’?!) or heard rumors about them during the recording process, and wondered, ‘What ever happened to those other four songs???.’ We kept them in the vault and decided to pull them just for this special celebration, so here are the four leftover tracks from the ‘Death Magnetic’ sessions. They are ROUGH mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March ’08. These four songs were released as gift to our closest fans, the members of our fan club, to enjoy. Now they’re being made available to you.”

“Beyond Magnetic” track listing:

01. Hate Train
02. Just A Bullet Away
03. Hell And Back
04. Rebel Of Babylon

“Beyond Magnetic” has sold 105,000 copies in the United States so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The 30th-anniversary shows featured METALLICA playing songs from deep in their catalog, while welcoming guests like BLACK SABBATH‘s Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler, Kid Rock, Lou Reed, JUDAS PRIEST‘s Rob Halford, ALICE IN CHAINS‘ Jerry Cantrell, former bassist Jason Newsted and many others to the stage.

The final show on December 10 featured a performance by the very earliest lineup of the group.

“Death Magnetic” was officially certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on June 28, 2010 for shipments in the United States in excess of two million copies.

Source: Blabbermouth.net

METALLICA‘s official web site has been updated with the following message:

“Last week we celebrated our 30th anniversary together with fan-club members from around the world by playing four nights at the historic Fillmore in San Francisco . . . It was quite the bash each and every night!

“If you were able to join us at any or all of the parties, thanks for coming out to hang with us. And whether or not you were there, you may have heard that we added some unreleased tracks from the ‘Death Magnetic’ sessions to the set list — one ‘new’ song each night as part of the shenanigans on stage.

“This week, we’re releasing those four tracks through iTunes exclusively in North America and on iTunes and additional digital retailers in other parts of the world as the ‘Beyond Magnetic’ EP. All four studio versions of these songs were sent to Met Club members for free immediately following their live debut on stage at the Fillmore and tomorrow they will be available to everyone via the magic of digital downloading. They are the rough mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March of 2008, and those of you with very keen senses of sound might recognize bits and pieces from the ‘Mission Metallica’ videos posted in the summer of 2008.

“Thanks again to everyone who visited us in San Francisco. As Lars [Ulrich, drums] mentioned at the end of the last show, we’ll be back here in January with an announcement about a special interactive fan event in June of 2012 . . . we may ask you to do a little traveling again!”

“Beyond Magnetic” track listing:

01. Hate Train
02. Just A Bullet Away
03. Hell And Back
04. Rebel Of Babylon

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse of Radio in an October 2008 interview that he didn’t understand the controversy that had broken out over the audio quality of “Death Magnetic” shortly after the LP’s release. Some fans and publications had accused the group and producer Rick Rubin of mixing the album at such a loud volume that the music is distorted and difficult to listen to. But Ulrich said that he’s more than happy with the way it turned out. “I listen to this record, and I listen to it every couple of days,” he said. “And when I hear it, it puts a smile on my face and it blows me away, and I don’t understand what people are talking about. Somebody told me the other day that there were 12,000 people that had signed a petition to remix the record. We’ve sold two and a half million copies [worldwide] of ‘Death Magnetic’. You do the math yourself.”

A number of fans said online that they prefer the versions of the CD’s tracks prepared for the Guitar Hero video game, which are mixed differently.

Ted Jensen, the engineer who mastered the album at Sterling Sound in New York, responded to fan complaints that the CD is too loud and the audio is pushed to distortion levels by writing, “I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick-walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me, I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else.”

Mastering is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device, the “master,” from which all copies will be produced.

Blame for the sound quality has been laid at the feet of the band itself, producer Rick Rubin and his recording engineer, Greg Fidelman. Source: Blabbermouth.net