METALLICA To Release 27 Live Albums On CD

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

"We've been extremely proud to offer virtually every show we've done in the past ten years as a download within days of the shows happening... sometimes even hours! Over the years we've been able to offer more download options adding HD audio and Apple lossless files to the mix, but we still get requests for the 'old-school' compact disc. To celebrate ten years of Live Metallica, we're going to make that happen! Starting today through the end of this year, every show that we've played in 2014 will be released on CD! We are gonna roll out three shows at a time on Mondays.

"We want to keep it simple so we'll go in order of when the shows were played starting with Bogotá, Colombia, Quito, Ecuador and Lima, Peru from the March South American run. Next week the next three shows will be available and so on. For those of you who want it all, we're also giving you a chance to pre-order a box set with all 27 shows included, which will ship in December. There's that special concept of a volume discount and you'll have a box to store all your CDs in. CD's will be priced at the very clever price of $19.81 a pop with the box set at $417.00 (spot the savings!) and you can place your orders at either LiveMetallica.com or in the Met Store.

"And for you vinyl junkies, select shows will be released on limited-edition 180-gram vinyl early next year. And once again, we here at your friendly METALLICA HQ want your input as to which shows you would like to see on vinyl... YOU choose from the 27 shows we've played this year by voting for your favs here. We'll take the top four that receive the most votes and press them up for you to order in early 2015. Voting will close on September 26.

"Let us know what you think and look for many more releases and some cool box sets in the New Year!"

METALLICA played the following shows in 2014:

March 16 - Parque Simon Bolivar, Bogota, Colombia
March 18 - Parque Bicentenario, Quito, Ecuador
March 20 - Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru
March 22 - Estadio do Morumbi, Sao Paulo, Brazil
March 24 - Jockey Club, Asuncion, Paraguay
March 27 - Estadio Monumental, Santiago, Chile
March 29 - Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 30 - Estadio Ciudad de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 12 - MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert at Club Nokia, Los Angeles, CA
May 28 - Sonisphere at Hietaniemi Beach, Helsinki, Finland
May 30 - Gardet Royal Park, Stockholm, Sweden
June 01 - Sonisphere at Valle Hovin, Oslo, Norway
June 03 - State Prison Open Air, Horsens, Denmark
June 04 - Sonisphere at Imtech Arena, Hamburg, Germany
June 06 - Rock Im Park at Zeppelinfeld, Nurnberg, Germany
June 08 - Rock Am Ring, Nurburgring, Germany
June 09 - Pinkpop Festival at Megaland, Landgraaf, Netherlands
June 28 - Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Great Britain
July 01 - Rock in Rome Sonisphere at Ippodromo Cappannelle, Rome, Italy
July 03 - Rock Werchter at Werchterpark, Werchter, Belgium
July 04 - Sonisphere at St. Jakob-Park, Basel, Switzerland
July 06 - Sonisphere at Knebworth House, Stevenage, Great Britain
July 08 - Aerodrome Festival at Incheba Open Air, Prague, Czech Republic
July 09 - Krieau Rocks at Krieau Open Air, Vienna, Austria
July 11 - Sonisphere at National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland
July 13 - ITU Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey
Aug. 09 - Heavy Montreal at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Montreal, Quebec

METALLICA's performance at the Heavy Montreal festival in early August marked the sole North American date on the "Metallica By Request" tour, which hit Europe and South America earlier in the year. The trek featured the band playing 17 songs requested online by fans in each city, with the final slot in the set list taken by a new song, "Lords Of Summer".

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told Metal Hammer in an interview that "Lords Of Summer" went over well with fans hearing it live on the band's "By Request" tour. Ulrich explained, "It's fun to play. It seems like the kids are enjoying it. There was actually somebody in the 'Snake Pit' the other day with a homemade 'Lords Of Summer' T-shirt on, which was very endearing."

Ulrich added, "It's a good song. Hey, listen, who knows by the time the next record comes out whether it will be in its same shape or format. But it's fun to play. And I think it's going down well, from what I can tell, from my little spot."

Ulrich said that in the past when the band has played fresh material live, sometimes the songs have not even had finished lyrics or titles. But he remarked that "Lords Of Summer" is "a little further along in terms of it being, sort of, together, so we're quite comfortable playing it. It's kind of written for this tour."

The drummer recently told "Metal Zone" about the band's next record, "I'm pretty convinced that 90 percent of the record is actually written, it's just gotta be kind of assembled between all those riffs. It's just a matter of connecting this to this and sort of shaping it into a song."

Frontman James Hetfield said something very similar when The Pulse Of Radio asked him a while back about the status of the band's new material. "We've come up with enough material for a record, for sure," he said. "We've gone through maybe one-tenth of the material that's on our riff CDs, but we've got enough for an album. We just haven't had the time to really focus on it and dial in and start whittling at these masterpieces, hopefully."