It seems that more than 35 years of uniting headbangers with pummelling music isn’t enough for the guys in Metallica. They’re now looking to enlist some younger fans for the “Met Army.”
That’s right. On Monday, the world’s biggest heavy metal band announced that it would be releasing its own children’s book, The ABCs of Metallica, towards the end of the year.
“We have a new book coming out,” wrote the band in an official statement, “and this time it rhymes!”
The book goes through all 26 letters of the alphabet, using each one to look back at the extensive history of the four-piece, from the “Garage Days,” to the critically-acclaimed Master of Puppets era, to the most recent album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (2016).
Beside Metallica, the book is co-authored by Howie Abrams (The Merciless Book of Metal Lists, Hip-Hop Alphabet), and is fully illustrated by Michael “Mr. Kaves” McLeer.
As revealed in the band’s statement, a portion of proceeds from the book will go towards the All Within My Hands Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by the band.
The All Within My Hands Foundation was founded by Metallica in February 2017. The organization partners with many charities, such as Feeding America and the American Association of Community Colleges.
Metallica’s ultimate vision was to improve the lives of those in need who have also supported the band throughout its fruitful, decades-long career.
WATCH: Metallica thanks volunteers for charity work
Band members have been encouraging friends and fans to participate in All Within My Hands charity drives to help tackle problems such as hunger and a lack of workforce education across the U.S.
Last November, Metallica raised more than US$1.3 million for the charity thanks to an unlikely acoustic set at the Masonic in San Francisco as part of the “Helping Hands” charity concert and auction.
Although The ABCs of Metallica is aimed at the likes of young children, many longtime Metallica fans showed their excitement on the band’s Instagram page after hearing of the announcement.
Some of them even took it upon themselves to guess what some of the letters would stand for in the upcoming story.
“‘F’ is for Firing Dave Mustaine,” wrote one user, referring to the band’s original lead guitarist who was fired from Metallica in May 1983, before going on off on his own to form Megadeth.
“‘Y’ is for YEAHHHHHHHHH. ‘O’ for OH YEAHHHHHHHH,” commented another, poking fun at lead vocalist James Hetfield’s style of singing.
“‘D’ is for DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. DIE. wrote another user, as a reference to the breakdown of Metallica’s 1984 single, Creeping Death.
“‘H’ is for HE F**KIN’ LEFT THE BAND!” joked an additional fan throwing it back to an interview with Metallica drummer and co-founder Lars Ulrich in the Some Kind of Monster (2003) documentary.
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