Video: Metallica Perform “Battery” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of Master of Puppets — arguably Metallica’s greatest masterpiece — and to celebrate, the band went on television and ripped the world a new one.
Specifically, they played an abridged version of Master‘s anthemic opening track, “Battery,” on their previously-announced appearance on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. You can watch the performance below.
Taking to social media after the broadcast, drummer Lars Ulrich said:
“Soooo much fun to be back on the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert again celebrating 35 years of Master of Puppets, firing up ‘Battery,’ and dusting off the old wrinkled backdrop…
“Actually, considering what craziness its been exposed to over its lifetime, it’s in remarkably good shape..(the backdrop that is!!????)
“Thanx again Stephen Colbert for having us.”
This is actually Metallica’s second appearance on Colbert this year: last month, on a special edition of the show that aired directly after the Super Bowl. You can watch their performance of “Enter Sandman” from that broadcast here.
Coincidentally, Metallica announced a partnership with the outdoor gear/sporting goods company Burton for a new line of merch earlier this week… which has nothing to do with Cliff Burton, whose last album with Metallica is, of course, Master of Puppets.
Metallica are currently deep into “some pretty serious writing” for their next album. After first floating the idea of working on new music while under quarantine in April, by June Lars Ulrich had revealed that Metallica were, indeed, in writing mode. James and Rob have both said they’ve been busy working on new songs, too, and Kirk Hammett has trumpeted the fact that he has over 600 song ideas recorded (after infamously losing his cell phone with 300+ ideas prior to the sessions for Hardwired). The band were having some technical issues collaborating over the internet and were looking into doing so in-person in a bubble last they checked in, but that was months ago already, and Lars recently revealed that new material was coming along at a “glacial” pace.
