By Jon Wiederhorn

This year’s Golden Gods Awards ceremony was like no other. Former-Pantera members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown took the stage with Anthrax for a crushing version of “This Love” from Pantera’s untouchable Vulgar Display of Power; Rob Halford performed with Five Finger Death Punch and Metallica, the latter for a cover of Priest’s “Rapid Fire” from their equally important British Steel. Deftones’ Chino Moreno joined a bloodied Dillinger Escape Plan for a metallized rendition of Depeche Mode’s “Behind the Wheel.” Members of Slipknot appeared with Stone Sour as they cranked out Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave.” And David Draiman, of Disturbed and Device, took the stage with Halestorm for a version of Led Zeppelin’s classic “Whole Lotta Love” from Led Zeppelin II. You can watch footage of all the madness right here.

For most musicians at the event, the trip to Hollywood’s Club Nokia was the culmination of a relatively short journey. But for Stone Sour, In This Moment, and Hell or Highwater, the trip to the award show began with the Road to the Golden Gods, a 13-date tour that launched in Portland, Maine’s State Theatre on April 2 and ran through April 27 in Jacksonville Metro Park.

The event was sponsored by Epiphone and the lineup was handpicked by Stone Sour, who considered various groups from different metal subgenres “We wanted to make sure the bands we brought out were not only good, but also something different,” says vocalist Corey Taylor. “There’s nothing worse than going to a show and hearing the same style of music all the way through. It’s like listening to machine gun firing constantly. But because we embrace so many styles, we wanted to make sure the other bands covered that spectrum as well.”

Stone Sour also wanted to make sure they would get along well with the other bands on the tour. Taylor knew In This Moment from years of playing festivals and radio shows together and always got along well with the band members, especially their vocalist Maria Brink. “She’s an amazing performer,” Taylor says. “She’s really creative and she gave it everything she had every night.”

“I think me and Corey have a real kinship because we’ve both been through a lot in our lives and that emotion comes across in our songs,” Brink says. “It was really great to be on the road with them and watch Stone Sour. Corey’s one of the most confident performers and he controls the crowd so naturally. I find him super-inspiring to watch.”

The love fest lasted for the whole tour, partially because Brink knows the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. “Maria got us a box of kick-ass cupcakes as a thank you present for having them on the tour,” Taylor enthuses. “I went, ‘Well, you didn’t have to do that, but I love cupcakes. I’m gonna eat 12 of these damn things.’ They were so good.”

For Hell or Highwater, which features Atreyu drummer Brandon Saller on guitar and vocals, the Road to the Golden Gods was a great opportunity to showcase a group that many metalcore fans didn’t know existed. Unlike the scream-dominated Atreyu, Hell or Highwater play vibrant, hook-laden hard rock with strong vocal harmonies, kind of like a cross between Weezer and the Foo Fighters. “This was definitely the best tour we’ve been on,” Saller says. “The crowd was really responsive. We had great shows every night and we really got close to everyone in Stone Sour.”

During a day off on the way to Florida, members of Hell or Highwater went to Stone Sour and Slipknot guitarist Jim Root’s house, ate sushi, sat around a bonfire, and played guitar. “Stuff like that doesn’t usually happen on tours, especially when you’re the opening band,” Saller says. “We made friends from day one, which was awesome.”

In addition to adding musical variety to the Road to the Golden Gods tour, Hell or Highwater introduced the Stone Sour and In This Moment camps to an addictive tour game they invented that’s kind of like rock-and-roll hot potato, where everyone tries to pass off a single hotel key card to someone else without them noticing.

“We taped hotel keys to Stone Sour’s snare drum and all kinds of stupid things,” Saller says. “There’s no point to the game, but in the end, once you get stuck with it, it’s yours.”

“That was funny as hell,” Taylor says. “I had already passed it to somebody. And somehow our monitor guy ended up with it. Then that cheeky bastard stuck it in the pick holder that was on my microphone stand. So when I walked out to do ‘Bother,’ there’s that bastard card key. I just shook my head and was like, ‘Oh, godammit. You fuckin’ nailed me. I lose.’”

Five Finger Death Punch has announced the band will release their fourth studio record as a double album in two installments with Vol. 1 hitting stores on July 23 and Vol. 2 scheduled for later this fall. Prospect Park will release the albums in North America, Eleven Seven in all other territories. Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory reveals, “We came off the road after a couple of great years of touring and were really amped up to write the fourth record. Everybody was in the right headspace and the band tighter than ever so it was a perfect storm. We jumped in head first and found ourselves 12-13 songs deep fairly quick but were still coming up with better and better material so we looked at each other and said… OK, why stop there ?… Let’s keep going. Once we passed the 24th song, we knew we’re going to have to do a double album. We had this massive amount of music that’s very dear to us, possibly the best material this band has ever created. At that point there was no way to decide which songs to leave off the album. So we made the decision to release them all.”

The band will be kicking off the new album cycle by introducing the first single, “Lift Me Up,” with a live performance featuring a very special surprise guest at Revolver Magazine’s Golden Gods Awards ceremony in Los Angeles this Thursday where the band will appear live alongside Metallica, Stone Sour, and Halestorm amongst others. The show will be streaming live on AXS TV, Xbox LIVE, and Revolver‘s Facebook page. The studio version of the song will premiere in the U.S. on radio on May 13 and will be available for purchase online May 14.

Five Finger Death Punch will co-headline the 2013 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival alongside Rob Zombie kicking off in San Bernadino, CA at the San Manuel Amphitheatre on June 29. The travelling festival will stage appearances in 26 markets, and the full itinerary can be viewed here: www.fivefingerdeathpunch.com/tour/

Tomorrow night, Metallica will accept the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Ernie Ball, and play the closing set at the 2013 Revolver Golden Gods. The award show will be broadcast live on AXS TV, Xbox LIVE, and Revolver’s Facebook page. In anticipation, Senior Writer Kory Grow sat down with Lars Ulrich a few days before the big night to look back–and ahead.

A little over three decades ago, Metallica recorded their first song, the whiplash-inducing thrash rager “Hit the Lights,” for a compilation called Metal Massacre. Since then, the little garage band that could went on to become not just heavy music’s biggest group, thanks to indisputable anthems like “Enter Sandman,” “Creeping Death,” and “Master of Puppets,” but one of the most revered and best-selling musical acts of all time. That’s why bestowing James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo with the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award this year—a year in which the band is staging its second Orion Music + More Festival, releasing the 3-D IMAX flick Metallica Through the Never, and maybe even recording a new album—is really our honor.

REVOLVER What does it mean to receive the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award?
LARS ULRICH Well, having Ronnie’s name attached to it is an honor. Second, when you get a lifetime achievement award, that’s always very special. It gives you a moment to pause and reflect on things that you’ve done. And certainly one thing you realize is that you’re not quite done yet. Hopefully, there’s still a lot of those memorable moments in front of us.

Also, this is the leading American award of its type, so it is super cool to receive it. When I introduced Avenged Sevenfold’s performance two years ago, the energy in the room was insane. There were some incredibly passionate kids there. So when we were invited to come and partake in the shenanigans this year, that was an easy decision. Revolver is obviously a magazine where we have a lot of friends, but it has also supported us for many, many years. I’m grateful.

When you look back at Metallica’s 30-plus years, what are you proudest of?
I’m probably proudest of the fact that we’re still around and functioning as a band, making the occasional record, doing other projects, and still being somewhat relevant. After 32 years in the business, that’s probably the greatest achievement. Also the fact that we overcame a very well documented meltdown in 2001, 2002, and we not only survived that meltdown but we feel we came back a better band. All the work we put into trying to better ourselves then paid off.

As a band, Metallica is in great shape. We actually talk to each other. We can all be in the same room. We can sit on the same airplane together. We can stay in the same hotel. We can hang out at dinner. And I think that’s probably the greatest achievement of all of them.

What keeps you together?
Metallica is who we are. It’s our lives. I was 17 when I formed this band. I’ve never really known anything else other than a failed attempt at a tennis career.

Thinking about when you got that first copy of Metal Massacre, where did you think Metallica was going?
I never really thought ahead very much. I think part of the reason that we made it is because it was never about making it. It was never about becoming successful. We just wanted to play music. I think that there was an honesty and a purity in that that people related to. None of us thought in a million years that the type of music we liked and the type of music that we wanted to play could ever be successful on a big scale. We were outsiders who found great joy in being together with other outsiders and loners. And we always felt that we existed outside of the mainstream, we existed outside of the rest of the world in our own little bubble and our own little universe. We never really cared too much about what everybody else was doing.

When I was growing up, I was always suspicious of having career goals, because I always scared that if you didn’t achieve your goals the way that you were planning, that you would alter or falsify your course to achieve that goal, and it could become impure or contrived. I was never a goal-setting person. So at the time Metal Massacre came out, I think we were just trying to figure out how to write the next great riff and figure out where we’re going to get $10 for the next bottle of Goldschläger or whatever nasty shit we were drinking at the time.

What do you feel is Metallica’s most underappreciated release?
I think Load and Reload are great records. They are creatively on par with every other record we’ve made. Obviously, they’re bluesier records, and at that time, we were listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and AC/DC, and we had a different kind of foundation than records before or after. And I understand that there are people who couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with the haircuts and the rest of it, and that’s fine. But musically, if you strip all that other stuff away, if you just listen to the 27 songs—Load and ReLoad were intended as one double-record—it’s a great collection of songs that is on par with everything else that we’ve done creatively. But, I mean, who needs another person to sit there and argue about, you know, fucking “Carpe Diem Baby”? They are different records, but that was the intention. It’s not like we sat there and thought we were remaking …And Justice for All. We are obviously aware of that. But I think personally there’s great songs on both of those records and I’m very proud of those records.

Looking to the future, you have a big movie coming out in September. Have you seen Metallica Through the Never on an IMAX screen yet?
No, but I’ve seen it on everything from an editing bay to some special screenings we’ve had in movie theaters. It’s going to be a mindfuck. I think that Metallica fans that are really into action films and movies with a lot of energy are going to be blown away. This is a very unique film. I don’t know what people are going to think of it. I like it. But obviously I’m biased.

Since you’re a film buff, did has anything surprised you about the filmmaking process?
No. I have a lot of people in the film world, both actors, producers, writers, directors, people that work at the different agencies. So I know a lot of the different elements of filmmaking. It’s very, very intense. When we’re making music, it’s James and I, Kirk and Rob, Rick Rubin, Greg Fidelman, Bob Rock, Randy Staub, one or two crew guys. It’s a very contained environment. When you’re making a film, there are so many variables, so many people, so many different departments and there’s just a lot to oversee. And when you are paying for it yourself—we haven’t taken any partners on this film, so we’re everything—it’s a big undertaking.

We have a tendency as a band to go along with things that sound like fun, especially things that are different for us. Anything that’s different is always appealing because we’re always up for new challenges. But I don’t think that we quite understood the scope of this when we undertook this project a few years ago. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I want you to understand that. And I’m not complaining about it; that’s really important also. I’m just saying the size of it, in terms of the amount of time that it’s taking up, it’s a big thing. But out of chaos comes great energy. So far, we haven’t lost our heads quite yet.

You’re also working on a new Metallica record. How is it sounding?
We’re in the early stages of writing, and all I can say is there are some good things lurking. It’s fun. Between doing the film and the Orion Festival, we’ve been taking a few days here and there to shift through riffs and get all that shit done. We’ve got to put them into song shape and get our asses in the studio. I hope we can do that by the end of the year, maybe early next year. 2014 is a bit optimistic for the album to come out, so ’15 is more realistic.

But listen, there’s no rush. It’s gonna take what it takes. I don’t feel stressed about it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care. Ten years ago, 20 years ago, we were in this whole cycle where we would write-record-tour, write-record-tour. Now we have a different way of being in the band. We like to play every year, but we don’t want to play 200 shows in a row and then take a year off. We like to play 30 shows, 40 shows. It’s better than playing 200 shows one year, and then no shows the next year. It’s cool to be doing these different types of things and new records are fun and cool, and there will be a new Metallica record, but I can’t stress myself out over it.

Finally, who do you think deserves the Lifetime Achievement Award next year?
Growing up with Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore has always been close to my heart. People like Lemmy, the Black Sabbath boys, the Judas Priest guys, Steve Harris, Phil Taylor, Ian Paice, Brian Tatler and Sean Harris. The list goes on: Jerry Cantrell, Kurt Cobain, Slash, Axl Rose, I don’t know, Liam and Noel Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Marley. People that do what they believe and their heart is in it. There are so many.

Sounds like you’ve got our next decade or more of award recipients planned.
Induct all of them next year. I’ll come and induct all of them. We’ll do them all in one fell swoop.

UK hard rockers Heaven’s Basement have been tapped as headliners for the “Aftermath,” the official after-party of the Fifth Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards Show Presented By Epiphone.

The quartet will perform at The Viper Room in Los Angeles on Friday, May 3. Limited tickets are available and can be bought here. Heaven’s Basement also will appear at the the Fifth Annual Revolver Golden Gods Award Show the day before.

Immediately following their set at the “Aftermath,” Heaven’s Basement will hit the road and be featured on the bill of US rock festivals UFiesta, Carolina Rebellion, Rockfest, Rock on the Range and Rocklahoma. The quartet also will serve as main support for Buckcherry on their tour, including a return to NYC on May 23 at Irving Plaza. They’ll also play a string of club shows with The Last Vegas.

Heaven’s Basement’s debut album, Filthy Empire (Red Bull Records), is in stores now. Filthy Empire was produced by John Feldmann (The Used, Papa Roach, Black Veil Brides). The first single, “Fire, Fire,” is impacting Active Rock radio. Check out the video for the single, directed by Michael Maxxis (Ours, Sum 41, and Our Lady Peace), here. Another track “I Am Electric” was recently used in the new “Need For Speed Most Wanted” video game and its trailer which can be seen here.

About the Revolver Golden Gods:

Each year, Revolver throws the premier US hard rock and metal awards show, the Revolver Golden Gods. In its fifth year, the show has featured appearances by Marilyn Manson & Johnny Depp, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Motley Crue, Rob Halford, Dave Grohl, Slash, Lemmy Kilmister, Dave Mustaine, William Shatner, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Kat Von D, and many others. For more information on the 2013 Revolver Golden Gods Award Show presented by Epiphone, visit goldengodsawards.com.

Heaven’s Basement U.S. tour dates:

MAY
4 Mesa, AZ Ufest At Mesa Quail Run Park
5 Rockingham, NC Carolina Rebellion
11 Kansas City, MO Rockfest At Liberty Memorial Park
12 Waterloo, IA Spicoli’s Grill and The Reverb Rock Garden+
15 Steger, IL Another Hole In The Wall+
16 Battle Creek, MI Planet Rock+
17 Jackson, MI The Foundry+
18 Columbus, OH Rock On The Range
21 Patchogue, NY The Emporium*
22 Point Pleasant, NJ Jenks*
23 New York, NY Irving Plaza*
26 Pryor, OK Rocklahoma
29 Bethlehem, PA Sands Bethlehem Event Center*
30 Providence, RI Fete Ballroom*
31 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom*

*supporting Buckcherry
+with The Last Vegas

For more information, visit:
HeavensBasement.com
facebook.com/HeavensBasement
twitter.com/HeavensBasement
redbullrecords.com

Fuse recently spent a day on the road with Corey Taylor and Stone Sour on the first-ever Revolver Road to the Golden Gods tour, which is going on right now. Check out the resulting footage below, and let us know what you think in the comments.

The fifth annual REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS AWARD SHOW presented by Epiphone has gotten even bigger with the announcement of a special performance by Danzig, including a special Misfits set with Doyle, along with appearances by some of the biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal. Taking place Thursday, May 2 at Club Nokia in Downtown Los Angeles, the sold-out event will be broadcast live on national television for the first time through AXS TV and broadcast in the United States and key international markets through Xbox LIVE^®* and Revolver’s Facebook page.  In addition, May 2 will be declared “Golden Gods Day” in the City of Los Angeles, with Councilwoman Jan Perry opening the show with an official proclamation.

Danzig will take the stage at this year’s show with fellow Misfit legend Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein for a very special live Misfits set. The highly anticipated performance joins previously announced live sets by Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, Anthrax, Stone Sour, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Halestorm. As always, the 2013 REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS AWARDS SHOW will feature one-of-a-kind surprise collaborations that honor the past, present and future of heavy music.

In addition to the not-to-be-missed performance lineup, this year’s show will feature appearances by some of the biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal.  The list includes Gene Simmons, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Phil Anselmo, Jason Newsted, Zakk Wylde, Kerry King of Slayer, Munky and Brian “Head” Welch of Korn, Taylor Momsen, David Draiman of Disturbed and Device, David Ellefson and Chris Broderick of Megadeth, Heaven’s Basement, Testament and In This Moment.

FOZZY frontman and WWE pro-wrestling legend Chris Jericho will reprise his role as host for the fourth consecutive year.  Returning as well is the “Black Carpet” pre-show special, which will be hosted by iconic heavy-metal frontman Sebastian Bach and Sirius XM’s Jose Mangin. The special will air on AXS TV, Xbox LIVE and Revolver’s Facebook page. The Xbox LIVE broadcast will unite viewers around the world with the hash tag #XboxGoldenGods. Tweets with this hash tag will run across the bottom of Xbox LIVE members’ screens throughout the “Black Carpet” and the awards show. The Xbox LIVE broadcast will also integrate unique second screen experiences on smartphones and tablets through the free Xbox SmartGlass app.

Fans everywhere were given the opportunity to vote to help decide who will take home the awards for “Best Guitarist” (presented by Epiphone^®), “Best Drummer” (presented by Drum Workshop^®), “Best Vocalist” (presented by Rockstar Energy Drink^®), “Album of the Year” (presented by Orange Amplification^®), “Song of the Year,” “Best Live Band” (presented by Samson^®/Zoom^®), “Best New Talent” (presented by Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival^®), “Most Metal Athlete” (presented by Roadrunner Records^®),  “Comeback of the Year” (presented by Eagle Rock^®), “Paul Gray Best Bassist” (presented by Dean Markley^®)  and “Most Dedicated Fans” (presented by Xbox LIVE). Voting ended on April 15 with over 3.25 million fans weighing in, and the results will be unveiled live during the show.

This year’s Golden God Award (presented by Sumerian Records^®), which is given to one special honoree a year who embodies the spirit of hard rock and metal, will go to Rob Zombie.  Performers and hard-rock icons Metallica will receive the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by Ernie Ball^®), and the Riff Lord Award (presented by EMG Pickups^®), given each year to a legendary guitarist in the field of hard rock and heavy metal, will go to none other than Black Sabbath axman Tony Iommi.

Also, the first-ever Revolver Road to the Golden Gods Tour, featuring Stone Sour, In This Moment and Hell or Highwater, is crossing the country right now. The multi-city national tour kicked off in March and will conclude at the 2013 Revolver Golden Gods Awards Show.

For more information on the 2013 REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS AWARDS presented by Epiphone®, visit goldengodsawards.com.

There’s only one solid explanation for why Metallica have decided to throw another Orion Music + More Festival this year. “We had a great fuckin’ weekend, and it seemed like everybody else had a really fun weekend,” Lars Ulrich tells Revolver with a laugh. “I don’t think it has to be much more intellectualized than that.”

When we catch up with him, the Danish drummer is en route to Brisbane, Australia’s RNA Showgrounds, where he and his bandmates in Metallica are playing their first gig of 2013, a year that will find the group playing gigs everywhere from the Middle East to Tokyo. As of right now, though, the only U.S. shows they have planned are their appearance at Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards, May 2 in Los Angeles, and at their very own Orion Music + More Festival, which takes place June 8 and 9 in Detroit.

The band announced the lineup and details for Orion 2013 yesterday, and it looks like it will be just as diverse and equally as incredible as last year’s. In addition to appearances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deftones, Tomahawk, Flag (members of Black Flag), and of course a double-shot of Metallica, among many others, it will feature each Metallica member’s personal lifestyle showcase (for Ulrich, it’s a film-screening tent), the fan-favorite Metallica Museum, and a newly added EDM stage. It’s the sort of festival the drummer tells us has got him excited, and he hopes it excites not just Metallica fans but also residents of the Motor City. “Obviously Detroit is a city with such a rich diversity and a rich musical heritage,” Ulrich says in his signature cool, breezy manner. “If it works out this year, I think there’s a good chance Orion will stick around Detroit for a couple years.”

REVOLVER What are your favorite memories from last year’s Orion Music + More Festival?
LARS ULRICH That whole experience I had in my film tent. It was just so cool to show movies to 300 Metallica fans and do Q&As with the directors and the producers. I also enjoyed getting a chance to play Ride the Lightning and doing the “Black Album” thing in its entirety, which was the only time we did it in America. And just hanging and being part of the scenery for a couple days.

I had fun seeing the bands, too, in the various tents, from the Hot Snakes to the Jim Breuers of the world. Seeing Avenged Sevenfold and The Sword and Sepultura and Arctic Monkeys. I got a chance to introduce the Arctic Monkeys, which was really cool, because I have a 14-year-old kid who worships the ground that the Arctic Monkeys walk on. So I actually was a pretty cool dad for a couple minutes when I introduced them.

Which artists are you most excited to see this year?
I saw the Chili Peppers in San Francisco about six months ago. They’re on a fucking roll at the moment. They’re better than they’ve ever been. I was completely blown away for two hours. We did a run with the Deftones in 2003 on our Summer Sanitarium Tour, which was really cool. Those guys are always good. Dropkick Murphys, those guys are so much fun and have so much energy. There’s such a positive vibe in what they do. Bringing in the 2013 incarnation of Black Flag, minus the “Black,” is obviously going to be pretty fun. My 14-year-old has turned me on to Japandroids, and I’ve heard some of their stuff, which is pretty amazing. I’ve become kind of a late fan of Fu Manchu. My girl actually turned me on to them a little while ago, so I’m a brand new fan of theirs. I’m glad that they’re with us. You know, Death. We’ll have Death come out and do their thing in Detroit again! And the Dillinger Escape boys. Lots of different stuff.

You mentioned Flag. Did you ever see Black Flag during their original run?
Yeah, we did. We actually saw them in New Jersey around ’84 or ’85. That was a very special night, because up ’til now—I’m not saying it won’t happen again—but up ’til now, that’s the only time I’ve been hardcore punched. We were hanging out at the Black Flag gig, and one of the bouncers asked us to leave. And I gave him a pretty obnoxious remark back, and the motherfucker just hit me hard in the stomach. And my stomach sort of caved around his fist. That’s the other thing I remember about that night other than seeing Black Flag.

What made you want to include an EDM stage this year?
When we played at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco in August, both Hetfield and I went over to the… OK, now I’m lying. Our kids dragged us over to the electronic tent. And I stood on the side of the stage and watched 20 – 25,000 14-year-old kids go absolutely fucking apeshit to Skrillex. And the energy and the whole spectacle with the lights and the sound, it was just such a fucking vibe. And so we both stood there with our kids and were like, You know what? We’ve got to bring some of that to the Orion Festival. And Bassnectar is awesome. He’s one of these dudes within that whole world, and he’s actually one of the local Northern California dudes and we hear he’s a bit of metal fan. So he’s headlining the whole electronic tent

Will you be playing any of your classic albums this year?
If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I would probably  not put too much money on that. I think you’ve got to be careful that it doesn’t become something that people expect from you every year, especially when you only put records out every five years like we do. We’ll run out of records to play at some point pretty quick. But I think, listen, we’ve played Puppets , we’ve played Lightning, and we’ve played the “Black Album.” I think it’s something that we’ll keep doing throughout Metallica’s next decade or so, but I don’t know if we’re going to do it at this year’s Orion Festival. Obviously there’s an anniversary there. People say, “Oh, it’s the 30th anniversary of Kill ’Em All.” But we haven’t made a firm decision on that. I don’t want to become predictable.

Your performance of Ride the Lightning last year, featured the song “Escape,” which you’d never played before. Was that fun? James Hetfield made it sound like you all never wanted to play it.
I love “Escape”! James is just being James. We always jam on that, mostly to piss him off. And he’ll start playing along in a different key or something. James told me that he actually heard the live version of “Escape” from Orion on the radio, and he said it sounded pretty good. So maybe there’s hope for “Escape.” Maybe it will make an appearance again in the next decade or so. That poor little song never did fucking anybody anything. It just sits on that record for 28 years, waiting to be played. Anyway, it was fun to let that one out.

Since it is the 30th anniversary of Kill ’Em All. What are your favorite memories from making that record?
We were in Rochester, New York, for six weeks. It was just fun because we didn’t know what the fuck was going on. There was just an innocence to it. We were making a record, and we had no idea what the fuck we were doing. We all lived in a house together, and we were living and eating and breathing and shitting Metallica, 24/7. That gang mentality was really, really fun.

Also, just the fact we were actually making a record. It was kind of a different thing 30 years ago, because nowadays anybody with a computer can get their music up and out to people. But back then it was more like, “Oh my God, we’re making a record.” It was pretty special. So we were fucking psyched and out of our minds and living the dream, you know?

Speaking of being out of your minds, I’ve read that Cliff Burton used to carry around a hammer and that’s what inspired the cover.
Yeah, he used to, man. He was just in his own world. He just lived in his own world. I don’t remember the specifics. I think most of those have been kind of lost to alcohol, uh, whatever, alcohol-fueled instances, but there was definitely pretty weird shit going on.

Lastly, you’re playing the Golden Gods this year, where Metallica is receiving the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. What can we expect from your performance?
Obviously, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I was there two years ago and had a fucking blast. The energy is spectacular in that room. I’ve heard of some of the other guests that are going to be there and some of the other recipients of awards. It’s going to be a fucking blast. In terms of what we’re going to play, there’s a few songs to pick from. I’m sure we’ll figure it out as we get closer. Your crew reached out to us last week about some potential collaborations, and we’re just starting to figure those out right now. It should be pretty amazing.