Metallica’s Epic ‘Now That We’re Dead’ Performance On ‘Colbert’ Proves They’re Gonna Live Forever

Metallica have always been legendary, but they’re in the midst of a revival of sorts at the moment. Whether it’s playing with Lady Gaga at The Grammys — mic failure and all — or promoting their brand new album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, the heavy metal legends have reached quite a bit of people who have not have been exposed to them in their initial prime.

Perhaps in order ot make sure people know just how legendary they are, Stephen Colbert made sure to share a pretty incredible fact about the band while introducing them — they’ve sold over 110 million records in their tenure as a band. That’s f*cking insane. Then, he did the high-pitched METALLICA voice as a perfect lead in to James’ Hetfield’s thundering, deep singing voice.

The song they chose to perform off their new album, Hardwired, which came out last year, was “Now That We’re Dead,” and it’s a fitting, anthemic return for the thrash metal group. “Now that we’re dead my dear / We can be together / Now that we’re dead my dear / We can live forever,” Hetfield screams, and it seems like a fitting pronouncement for the group themselves. They may be over thirty years removed from their debut — “dead” in rock terms — but they still shred as hard as ever, and this late night performance only proves it. Watch above.

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