A new book about Metallica has claimed that the band have made a series of 'disastrous' financial decisions in the past five years.
Authors Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood claim in their new book that “Since 2010 it’s likely that Metallica have lost more money than they’ve made.”
The pair explained to literary website The Weeklings: "By their own admission, the two stagings of the Orion festival were disastrous financially, and the shambles that was the Through The Never movie cost $32 million and will only recoup a fraction of that amount.
"Factor in HQ staff salaries, crew retainers and assorted running costs associated with maintaining an entertainment corporation and you can easily understand why the band – of necessity now rather than by choice – are driven to tour Europe every summer."
The pair place blame squarely on their movie project Through The Never starring Dane Dehaan (which received both critical plaudits and a Grammy nomination).
"Through The Never film project was a horrible misjudgement, a misguided attempt to breathe new life into a decade-old idea," they say. "As the film spiraled horribly over-budget it’s hard not to imagine that at least one band member – and let’s be honest, we’re talking about James Hetfield here – thinking ‘What the fuck have we got ourselves into?’ Quite how that ‘script’ ever got the green light is an unfathomable mystery."
Metallica recently announced a reissue series with a No Life 'Til Leather cassette tape. The band will release the 1982 demo on 18 April. The limited edition throwback drops on Record Store Day before a series of CD and vinyl editions due for release this summer.
"This is the second demo that we made and circulated," Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone. "I sat in my bedroom and wrote on the J cards and went to the post office and sent it around to all the tape collectors around the world. Now, 20, 30 years later, it has become synonymous with the pre–Kill 'Em All era."
"I don't remember being particularly goal-oriented then, but I assume the intention was to get signed," he went on. "We always felt we were having so much fun and doing so much, after being loners for years, it made us feel like we belonged to something. It was just being in a gang, playing music, having fun, living and breathing hard rock and heavy metal, 24/7. We quickly realized we were the opposite of what was going on up in Hollywood at the time."
Listen to No Life 'Til Leather below
Metallica headline this year's Reading and Leeds Festival, supported on the day by Royal Blood and Bring Me The Horizon.
Reading Festival takes place at Little Johns Farm on Richfield Avenue, while Leeds Festival takes place at Branham Park - both during the Bank Holiday weekend of 28-30 August. For tickets and more information on Reading Festival visit here, and for Leeds visit here.
