Metallica Announce “Blackened Friday” Event for Album Release

Get up early! Drive to the store! Gotta get those deals at all costs, including trampling over anyone in your path! It’s…

BLACKENED FRIDAY!

No, not that annual post-Thanksgiving ritual of disgusting American consumerism, but a special nationwide event Metallica have put together exactly one week before that, November 18th, the day their new album Hardwired… To Self-Destruct comes out. Via Metallica.com:

Over eight years of waiting is now down to just one week until Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is cut loose and our friends at independent retail are throwing a party!! Starting on Thursday, November 17th at 11:59 PM almost 100 old school record shops in North America will be open at Midnight selling Hardwired…To Self-Destruct LPs and CDs. Stores will be stocked with music, prizes and cool giveaways like limited edition vinyl slip mats and posters as Blackened Friday officially kicks off… yeah, we’re a week before that other Black Friday you may have heard about (!). During normal business hours, additional stores will be hosting Blackened Friday events with music and more giveaways as the celebration continues.

Countdown to the release and find a store close to you by visiting blackenedfriday.metallica.com and follow along at #BlackenedFriday.

Can’t make it to a store? Enter to win a chance to be an honorary Blackened ambassador on BLACKENED Friday! Entry period runs from November 11th until November 25th at 9 AM PST. We’ll choose one grand prize winner and ten runner-up winners by the end of the day on November 25th with all the details here.

We can’t wait to share the entire album with you next week as there is much, much more to come!!

Pretty incredible and impressive that a metal band — albeit one that plays stadium — was able to pull off something so coordinated on such a massive scale. And to keep it under wraps until now! I’m sure those stores will be packed and records will be flying off the shelves.