If we can’t get a Guitar Hero: Megadeth, this is the next-best thing.
It was the industry’s worst-kept secret, and post-confirmation, more details are emerging on the highly anticipated Guitar Hero: Metallica. Activision has released an official trailer viewable below, new features have been announced and the setlist is beginning to take shape.
This month’s issue of Game Informer has revealed 20 songs included in the game. Eleven Metallica songs have been confirmed, including:
– Enter Sandman (Metallica, 1991)
– For Whom The Bell Tolls (Ride The Lightning, 1984)
– Fuel (ReLoad, 1997)
– Hit The Lights (Kill ‘Em All, 1983)
– King Nothing (Load, 1996)
– Master Of Puppets (Master Of Puppets, 1986)
– No Leaf Clover (S&M, 1999)
– Nothing Else Matters (Metallica, 1991)
– Sad But True (Metallica, 1991)
– The Unforgiven (Metallica, 1991)
– Wherever I May Roam (Metallica, 1991)
Like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the Metallica version will also feature songs from other artists. Along with unnamed tracks from Slayer, Foo Fighters and Queen, Game Informer has confirmed nine specifically:
– No Excuses by Alice In Chains
– Turn The Page by Bob Seger
– Hell Bent For Leather by Judas Priest
– Demon Cleaner by Kyuss
– Tuesday’s Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd
– Blood And Thunder by Mastodon
– Armed And Ready by Michael Shenker Group
– Mother Of Mercy by Samhain
– Black River by The Sword
Guitar Hero: Metallica will follow the World Tour template, allowing players to play guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Unlike the safe-route Aerosmith version, the Metallica game will introduce interesting new features to the Guitar Hero series, including a new freestyle drum mode, DVD-style features like tour footage and photos, as well as Metallica and Slayer-inspired samples for GHTunes custom songs.
The new Expert Plus drumming mode may be the most exciting new feature, using a second bass pedal for driving double-bass rhythms.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich says Guitar Hero and Metallica, two proponents of riffs and head-banging, are a “perfect marriage.”
“Guitar Hero showed up on my radar about a year and a half ago,” Ulrich told the BBC last week. “I have a 10-year-old, a seven-year-old and started realizing that this was actually a great way for them to be exposed to music.”
“That was what we in Metallica-world call a ‘no-brainer.’ That was one of those decisions that took about 12 seconds to facilitate.”
The so-called Four Horsemen have also taken an active role in the game’s development and have been involved at every stage.
“We were involved in terms of songs, in terms of graphics, in terms of storylines,” said Ulrich. “We were hands-on in all those areas.”
According to Metallica’s official Web site, Guitar Hero: Metallica is scheduled to release when the bell tolls “in the first half of 2009.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvvaQF6acBw&e[/youtube]