Metallica unveiled a new song, “The Lords of Summer,” on tour in Bogata, Colombia Sunday night and it”s a lightweight ditty about sand between your toes and gentle beach breezes… Not….
The 8-minute epic is a hard-hitting, sludgy slab of metal, with James Hatfield singing about “eternal fire rings” and how he”ll “take the chill of winter so the lords of summer can return.” There”s not really a chorus there, but it mainly meanders from speeded-up riffs, Lars Ulrich”s drum bashing, an interesting Kirk Hammett guitar solo about 2/3rd in, some Ramones-like chanting, and lyrics about darkness. Man, those lords of summer are some dark dudes.
“Lords of Summer” is the first new Metallica music since 2012″s “Beyond Magnetic.”
Ulrich told Rolling Stone that the song is fairly representative of where our creative headspace is at right now.” It”s the lone new song on the “Metallica By Request” tour, which features the band playing tracks voted on by the fans each night.
No word on “The Lords of Summer” will end up on a new Metallica album; even Ulrich doesn”t know for sure. “So who knows what”s going to happen with this stuff,” he said. “But we are off and running and have been creating away in the studio and now we”re going to go out and play and sweat and share.”
What do you think of “The Lords of Summer?”