Metallica will be releasing rare recordings, demos, rough mixes and live rarities in the coming months on vinyl as part of their newly launched Vinyl Club.
The group has launched a subscription signup for the club, which runs through March 31st. A subscription includes four seven-inch singles and other collectibles (possibly stickers, guitar picks and posters) that the band will send out over the year. Many of the songs, the band says, will be pressed to vinyl for the first time. Metallica has also already begun planning a 2021 subscription.
Metallica have been on top of the vinyl resurgence since they remastered and rereleased their back catalogue on their own Blackened Recordings label in 2014. Vinyl has also been an integral part of their super-deluxe reissues, which have included many previously unreleased recordings available on LP only.
Four years ago, the group assumed the mantle of Record Store Day Ambassadors, for which they made an eight-minute clip talking about their love of LPs and record stores. They also played a special “old-school set” at the Berkeley location of the San Francisco record store chain Rasputin Music as part of their ambassadorship.
In a 2018 interview with Classic Rock, drummer Lars Ulrich waxed poetic on why vinyl mattered so much to him. “I still have all of my old records,” he said. “I still occasionally take them out. I would be lying to you if I said there was no nostalgic undertone to the whole thing. It’s just nice to be able to sit down and listen to music for no other reason than to sit down and listen to music.”