Metallica Blame “Overzealous Attorney” For Cease and Desist Against Canadian Tribute Band

Unless you have the memory of the dude from Memento, you will recall that yesterday word got out that Metallica had send Sandman, a Canadian Metallica tribute band, a lengthy cease and desist order pertaining to the latter band’s use of a very St. Anger-era-esque logo. Metallica’s fans, understandably, flew into a rage, citing this as yet another example of ‘Tallica being totally out of touch.

But we can all calm down now! The band has blamed a member of their legal time for the cease and desist. They tell Rolling Stone:

“We hear that a Canadian Metallica tribute band is a little upset with us and with a little digging, figured out why. It turns out that a certain letter was delivered to the band Sandman that neither we nor our management were aware of until it surfaced online. Lucky for us, the band was kind enough to post it for us to see, and it turns out that we have a very overzealous attorney who sent this letter without our knowledge.

“We have a long history of not only enjoying tribute bands, but we started as one,” the group says. “Heck, we even recorded a two-disc album of covers [1998’s Garage, Inc.]! We will always remember those days and continue to enjoy tribute bands, even inviting them to support us on various tours over the years.

“Sandman should file the letter in the trash. Keep doing what you’re doing … we totally support you! And in the meantime, our attorney can be found at SFO catching a flight to go permanently ice fishing in Alaska.”

Whether or not the letter was actually the fault of one of the band’s lawyers or they’re just passing the buck, at least the situation is now rectified. And as if that wasn’t enough, Sandman guitarist Joe Di Taranto says he even got a call from Lars Ulrich himself:

“He gave me and the band his full blessing to continue on as we were. They want us to continue paying tribute to Metallica with their full blessing and approval. We will continue to fly the Metallica flag, loud and proud!!”

So that’s that then. Conflict over. Now we can all go back to being pissed at Metallica for more than two decades of disappointing records instead of being pissed at them for being rich d-bags.