For decades, it seemed like heavy metal titans Metallica had lost its way with its fanbase. From suing Napster and having 335,000-plus of its fans blocked from the site for downloading/sharing the band’s tunes to the musical abomination that was “St. Anger,” fans had a hard time being “fans” of these guys. Of course, there was a couple of silver linings — like 2008’s fantastic “Death Magnetic.” But the dark times far outweigh the good at this point.
Now it seems Metallica is going back to its core fanbase — Budweiser swilling metalheads. And the band has formed an unholy alliance with the famed cheap beer company for special edition Metallica-branded beer. This dark union is to commemorate an opening of a new venue in Quebec City (because nothing is more metal than Canada) with an even darker beer can — an all black Budweiser can with lightning bolts and the band’s name. The can’s tagline is “Coulée dans le rock (cast in rock)” which makes this almost as ridiculous as something straight out of “Metalocalypse.”
The new venue that is the center of this whole thing, Centre Vidéotron, released this: “Budweiser has partnered with legendary rock band Metallica to channel the brute force of this historic show and be inspired by its vibrations, its energy and its decibels to create a beer in the image of the power of rock.”
It is planned to have a larger, limited edition run later this month in Canada, with less than 100,000 cases of the beer available for the masses.
The JOE-DOWN 