Metallica Acquires Furnace, One of America’s Largest Vinyl-Manufacturing Companies

Metallica frontman James Hetfield has announced details of a new book which is all about his guitar collection.The 400-page coffee table book, Messengers: The Guitars of James Hetfield, details the frontman’s entire collection of over 40-plus guitars, revealing “the story and significance of each within his life and career.”According to the book’s description, “Hetfield shares the emotional and technical elements of the chosen tools that have shaped his singular musical journey, including exotic instruments, vintage Gibsons, and custom one-offs. He also reveals many studio secrets, including the key amplifiers and gear that sculpt his tone and create his sound.”A post shared by Metallica (@metallica)The description goes on to add: “Each featured guitar is accompanied by lush museum-quality portraits by acclaimed photographer Scott Williamson, exhibiting intimate details one can only see if holding it in their own hands, alongside Hetfield’s deeply personal reminiscence.”Messengers: The Guitars of James Hetfield is set for release on October 17 via Simon & Schuster.Meanwhile, Metallica are set to release their upcoming 11th album ’72 Seasons’ on April 14 via Blackened Records.A post shared by Metallica (@metallica)Speaking about the inspiration behind the forthcoming new record’s name, Hetfield said: “72 seasons.

DEALSHipgnosis has acquired the catalogue of ‘Despacito’ co-writer Erika Ender. “I am very excited about this partnership with Hipgnosis”, she says. “I’ve always believed that music is eternal.

Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden and Tool are set to all play new California festival Power Trip.Across three days at the Empire Polo Club in Indio – the venue for Coachella – the six metal heavyweights will come together for a massive show on October 6, 7 and 8.The show will be Ozzy Osbourne’s first since he announced his retirement from touring. It’s also AC/DC’s first gig since 2016, and could signal the return of frontman Brian Johnson, who missed their last gigs due to hearing loss and was replaced by Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose.The first day of Power Trip (October 6) will be headlined by Guns N’ Roses and Iron Maiden, with AC/DC and Osbourne headlining the second night.Things then wrap up on October 8 with sets from Metallica and Tool.See full details below.

Metallica have shared the huge title track to their upcoming album ‘72 Seasons’ – check it out below.‘72 Seasons’ marks the thrash icons’ first full collection of new material since their 2016 album, ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’. The LP was produced by Greg Fidelman, as well as founding members, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. It will be released on April 14.Back in November, the band released the lead single ‘Lux Æterna’.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor As expected, a new hard rock festival called Power Trip, from the founders of Coachella, has announced its lineup: Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Tool. It will take place at Coachella’s home base of the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., Oct.

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor While an official announcement is not expected until later in the week, multiple sources tell Variety that Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Tool and Iron Maiden headline a new festival called Power Trip from Coachella founders Goldenvoice. The sources say the festival will take place at Coachella’s home base, Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif., in October. The news was previously reported by Hits, Desert Sun and the music blog the Scenestar, and a remarkably unsubtle teaser campaign apparently from the organizers. Despite the Coachella connection, the festival is more like a hard rock version of Goldenvoice’s 2016 Desert Trip festival, which featured a classic-rock dream team of Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Who and Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters.

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has joined forces with guitar manufacturer Gibson to create replicas of his iconic “Greeny” Les Paul.The original 1959 model has become iconic in the guitar world, having belonged to members of some of the world’s biggest bands. Originally, the axe was owned by Fleetwood Mac‘s Peter Green and from there it was passed down to Thin Lizzy’s guitarist Gary Moore, who played it for decades.Now, the design is owned by the thrash icon and Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has teamed up with the manufacturer to create replicas.“I am very honoured and grateful for this opportunity with Gibson,” Hammett said.

Metallica’s upcoming album, ‘72 Seasons’.The legendary bassist was speaking as part of a new interview, when he confirmed that he will be making his Metallica vocal debut on the band’s forthcoming LP – namely, on a track called ‘You Must Burn!”“When I joined Metallica, I’d never sung in my whole life. So the fact that I can now support a backup vocal is pretty cool,” he said to So What!.“For the first time in my life, I get to sing on a Metallica record and support James.

Metallica are “average” musicians.In a new interview with Cigar Aficionado magazine, the Metallica vocalist said “I know individually, we’re all really average players.”He went on to claim that something special happens when the four of them team up though. “When you put us together, something happens,” he explained.

Jack White has praised Metallica for their recent acquisition of Virginia-based vinyl pressing plant Furnace Record Pressing, while also urging the major record companies to start building their own vinyl pressing facilities as production delays continue.“Huge congratulations to the boys in Metallica for purchasing their own vinyl record pressing plant”, wrote White on Instagram. “Welcome to the cause gents! And thank you for putting your money to amazing creative use! Here’s hoping the major labels will also see this as further proof, and finally start investing in themselves.

Jack White has responded to Metallica buying their own vinyl pressing plant, calling it an “outstanding” move.This week, the metal icons purchased a majority stake in Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, Virginia, one of the largest pressing plants in the United States.White, who owns the Nashville-based Third Man Records and last year, wrote an open letter to major record labels urging them to build their own vinyl pressing plants, has welcomed the news in a message directed to the band.“Welcome to the cause gents!” And thank you for putting your money to amazing creative use!” White wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of Metallica.“Here’s hoping the major labels will also see this as further proof, and finally start investing in themselves,” he added. “Outstanding.”In the comment section of the post, Metallica replied: “So unbelievable and grateful to be able to do this after all these years.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor MindGeek, the embattled parent company of Pornhub, has a new owner. Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), a private-equity firm based on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, announced that it has acquired MindGeek. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ECP says it is managed by a “multidisciplinary team with regulatory, law enforcement, public engagement and finance experience.” Founded in 2004, MindGeek operates a large portfolio of adult entertainment sites, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube, Brazzers, Men.com, Sean Cody, Trans Angels and Nutaku. The company says it has “industry-leading compliance and content moderation practices” that “set the standard for trust and safety,” claiming it institutes compliance measures “that surpass those of other platforms on the internet.”

Here’s a story for you. A few months ago I was thinking about Metallica and Lou Reed’s collaborative album ‘Lulu’. More than ten years on from the shock we all experienced on first listen – you know, because of the strangeness of that project – not to mention the the backlash that followed, it occurred to me that it might be fun to give the record another play.Because maybe listening to that album again after all this time would reveal something quite interesting and worthwhile that we all missed first time round.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has blamed “ignorance” for the reaction to ‘Lulu’, their 2011 collaborative album recorded with Lou Reed.The album earned mixed reviews upon its release and has continued to be one of the most divisive records of Metallica’s career, while Reed once claimed it was so unpopular that Metallica fans threatened to shoot him for making it.Ulrich previously reflected on the experience of working with the Velvet Underground legend as a positive one, maintaining that he “wouldn’t change a thing” about the record.Ulrich has now once again reflected on the response to the album, asking (via Loudwire) in Reed’s posthumously released new book, The Art Of The Straight Line: My Tai Chi: “What the fuck is it about ‘Lulu’ that it got that kind of reaction?”He continued: “I can’t quite figure it out, but years later, it’s aged extremely well. It sounds like a motherfucker still.

We all know there are production capacity issues with vinyl right now. What can you do as an artist? How about you buy your own pressing plant? That’s what Metallica have done and I don’t see why you can’t too.The band have acquired a majority stake in the Virginia-based Furnace Record Pressing, which they have been working with since 2014 – pressing up more than five million pieces of Metallica vinyl in that time.“Building Furnace into the dedicated and experienced family of experts that it is today has been a huge effort, but immensely gratifying”, says the company’s founder Eric Astor.

Metallica have purchased a majority stake in a vinyl pressing plant in Virginia.Furnace Record Pressing in Alexandria, Virginia is one of the largest pressing plants in the United States, with 12 Pheenix Alpha presses and two Finebilt presses.In the past, it has pressed a host of reissues for Metallica, including box set vinyl of their albums ‘Kill ‘Em All’, ‘Ride The Lightning’ and ‘Master Of Puppets’.The band are now majority partners in the plant, which was founded in 1996 by Eric Astor. In a statement, Astor said: “Building Furnace into the dedicated and experienced family of experts that it is today has been a huge effort, but immensely gratifying.“Knowing our long-term future is secured while also being better able to take advantage of growth opportunities is really exciting for every member of the Furnace staff.”Metallica’s Lars Ulrich said: “We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace — and Eric, Ali and Mark specifically — to the next level.

BreAnna Bell Jason Ritter has signed on to join CBS’s “Matlock” pilot, Variety has learned. He’ll portray Julian, the son of the head of the firm, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. However, he’s not to be underestimated. “Diligent and persistent with a lot to prove, he’s at odds with prioritizing his family and balancing his career. He always considers the good of the firm, even if it pushes the boundaries between his work and personal life,” reads the character’s description. Ritter joins previously announced cast members including Kathy Bates as Madeline Matlock, Skye P. Marshall as Olympia, David Del Rio as Billy, Leah Lewis as Sarah.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired North American rights for Belgian director Bas Devos’s film Here which won best film in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section last month as well as the Fipresci prize.

Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock has weighed in on the idea of the punk band doing an ‘ABBA Voyage’ style hologram show with late member Sid Vicious.Matlock said in a recent interview with The Mirror that he thinks that the concept of hologram shows can’t live up to the real thing. “There’s nothing better than a band playing with passion, vim and vigour in front of a live audience – in tune, with a couple of beers inside them, or a coffee, going for it,” he said.He continued: “If they can dig up some 3D imagery of Sid at this stage, that would be an achievement in itself.”Sid Vicious passed away from a drug overdose in 1979 at the age of 21.In another interview with PA, Matlock said he feels punk music can be a “small brick in the wall of change” during politically turbulent times.“In England back then there was a lot going on and there’s a direct parallel to what’s going on now,” he explained.

EXCLUSIVE: Baker and the Beauty alum David Del Rio and Leah Lewis (The Half Of It) have been cast as series regulars opposite Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall in CBS’ drama pilot Matlock, a new take on the classic legal TV drama starring Andy Griffith, which comes from Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman and NCIS: Los Angeles star Eric Christian Olsen.