Los Angeles - Metallica have blamed their management company Q Prime for asking bloggers to take down their reviews of rough mixes of the band’s new album — bloggers who were invited to a listening party to hear said tracks, according to a post on Metallica.com. "Our response was ‘WHY?!!! Why take down mostly positive reviews of the new material and prevent people from getting psyched about the next record… that makes no sense to us!’ So after a few rounds of managerial ear spank and sentencing [...].

Los Angeles - Activision (NASD: ATVI) plans to release a Metallica-themed version of its popular "Guitar Hero" game, according to an SEC filing noted by Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Edward Woo, GameSpot reported. Activision has already announced a version of the game featuring Aerosmith, which is due for release later this month.

Related Links: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6191921.html

http://www.guitarherogame.com/ghaerosmith

Los Angeles - Longtime digital holdouts Metallica, who famously led the artist-based charge against the original Napster, have announced a new promotion for their upcoming album that will provide behind-the-scenes coverage of its recording, and a fan club whose members will be able to download it in the unprotected MP3 format upon its release. The "Mission: Metallica" club promises fly-on-the-wall footage of writing and recording; riffs and excerpts from the new album; unique live tracks; ticket contests and other features.

Related Links: http://www.missionmetallica.com

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/05/metallica-and-w.html

Mountain View, Calif. - With one more record due to Warner Music under their current contract, Metallica is considering a Radiohead-style release for future efforts, drummer Lars Ulrich tells Rolling Stone. "We’ve been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in twenty-seven years or however long it takes for the next record, we’ll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet," said Ulrich. Since notably coming out against illegal downloading during the heyday of Napster, the band now offers FLAC and MP3 versions of shows for [...].

New York – Metallica, a band vocal in its opposition to free file-sharing and late to digital services, finally ended its boycott of Apple's iTunes Store on Wednesday, agreeing to license songs from four of its early albums to be sold a la carte on the service, Billboard reported. Full Metallica albums have previously been available for purchase on other digital services, but the band's opposition to selling single tracks put it at odds with Apple's retail policy. The songs [...].