A group that decompartmentalizes metal, Metallica has established itself as a heavyweight in the music industry, with a new album classified as a secret-defense before its release, as for the last disc of the megastar Adele.
The previous world tour, which began in 2016 before being interrupted in 2020 due to the health crisis, brought in more than $400 million, according to
Forbes
magazine .
"
Metallica is part of a limited number of locomotives, all music combined, which interests a wider audience than its die-hard fans
", explains to AFP Ben Barbaud, boss of Hellfest, a French festival dedicated to metal (420,000 spectators last year).
The Californian quartet has managed to “
transcend genres, playing at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert when he comes from metal
,” reminds AFP Luc Frelon, programmer of the French web radio station
Fip Metal
.
There is not necessarily an equivalent, which raises the question of the renewal of the metal scene, which does not have such an iconic succession
, ”he continues.
Ben Barbaud remembers musicians "
relaxed
" although surrounded "
an impressive machine, a team close to a hundred people
".
Ultra VIP pass
Noblesse oblige, for the next stadium tour, the ultra-VIP pass is more than 7,000 dollars for eight people and two evenings.
Because the Californian formation sees double each time in this tour, thus passing at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis north of Paris, on May 17 and 19.
“
It has become a kind of rock-business monster on tour, the members of the group may have lost their touch with a giant management, even if I am the first to go to the two evenings at the Stade de France”
, comments Luc Frelon.
Read alsoMetallica announces new album and world tour
Nothing to do, therefore, with the era of the first album in 1983 (
Kill 'em all
,
Kill them all
) and the niche where they appear, that of thrash metal, not the most musically accessible.
Recently, the group even bought a vinyl pressing plant for its own needs, while this medium has just exceeded CD sales for the first time in the United States.
The life of the founding members, James Hetfield, singer and guitarist, and Lars Ulrich, drummer, soon to be in their sixties, changed in 1991 with what is now called the
Black Album
.
This 5th opus allows them to reach the general public, with the hits
Enter sandman
and
Nothing else matters
.
Respectively a little more and a little less than a billion plays on Spotify, the leader of music platforms.
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"
Metallica has participated in the democratization of metal in countries like France, which has long been blocked, while in the Nordic countries metal is part of popular culture, (the telecrochet) The Voice welcoming metal singers there
" , exposes to AFP Pierre Pauly, programmer of the Francofolies.
This generalist French festival has also been offering a metal night since 2019 alongside family headliners.
The track
Master of puppets
(1986) even incorporated Netflix's hit series
Stranger things
.
A sign of their status, to listen in advance to
72 seasons
, which comes out this Friday, critics had to comply with the same constraints as for the last Adele: leave their phone in the locker room in the record company and sign a confidentiality waiver before lifting 'embargo.
While for most artists, records or listening links are sent to the press upstream.
Fans and the curious will be able to listen to it the day before its release in some requisitioned cinemas around the world.
And discover the 12 titles, including several calibrated for stadiums, like
You must burn!
.
"
It's one of the great groups that continues to release records that stand out, there are seven or eight really strong ones even if they are sometimes too talkative
“, describes Luc Frelon.
The album ends with a bravura piece,
Inamorata
, over 11 minutes long.