Metallica have debuted their brand new single live for the very first time.
Days after announcing they would be releasing their first album in eight years, the metal music heavyweights performed the LP’s titular lead single ‘Hardwired’ at their show at Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium on Saturday night (20.08.16).
The ‘Enter Sandman’ musicians premiered the studio version of the track prior to its live debut, a decision they said was taken because they’d "put a lot of time and effort into making these songs good" and didn’t want fans who weren’t at the show to hear a poor-quality recording of the song.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, drummer Lars Ulrich – who is joined by James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo in the group – said: "One thing we realised when we were making the album is that we put a lot of time and effort into making these songs good and, given a choice, we would rather people hear the recorded version than a live version on some s***ty iPhone recording from 900 rows back. So read into that what you will."
The double album – entitled ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’ – is due for release on November 18th, and is their first release in the eight years since their last record, 2008’s ‘Death Magnetic’.
The ‘Master of Puppets’ hitmakers have said that only a "cosmic reason" could prevent them from releasing the album this year.
Speaking previously, 52-year-old Lars said: "If the record doesn’t come out this year, then It won’t be because it’s not done.
"It will be because there’s some sort of cosmic reason that it would be smarter to hold onto it until next year."
‘Hardwired… to Self Destruct’ track listing:
Disc One
1. ‘Hardwired’
2. ‘Atlas, Rise!’
3. ‘Now That We’re Dead’
4. ‘Moth into Flame’
5. ‘Am I Savage?’
6. ‘Halo on Fire’
Disc Two
1. ‘Confusion’
2. ‘Dream No More’
3. ‘ManUNkind’
4. ‘Here Comes Revenge’
5. ‘Murder One’
6. ‘Spit Out the Bone’