Metallica has announced the winners of their inaugural ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ marching band competition. Launched last April, over 450 US colleges and high schools applied to enter. Bands were challenged to create unique and exciting performances of some of the band’s most popular songs, with the band providing musical charts to songs like ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘Fade to Black’ and others. The winning bands were selected by Metallica themselves based on the school age groups.
Auburn University in Alabama was awarded the top prize of $75,000 (£58,800) worth of musical instruments and gear for their College (Division 1) category victory. The other winners include Eastern New Mexico University, Dobyns-Bennett High School in Tennessee, Boerne High School in Texas, Malverne High School in New York, and Oakton High School in Virginia.
James Hetfield, the band’s frontman, recently expressed his desire for someone to create a microphone with a built-in straw. Speaking on the band’s in-house podcast, The Metallica Report, he said that it would be cool if he could sip water while playing through some kind of straw on the microphone.
Metallica will embark on another leg of their M72 World Tour starting in May 2024. They will play two nights in each city with two unique “no repeats” setlists and different support acts. The tour will wrap up in Mexico in September 2024. The band’s bassist, Robert Trujillo, recently revealed why they made changes in their ‘M72’ tour setlists.
Check out Auburn University’s impressive halftime Metallica marching band performance, which won them the College (Division 1) category, in the linked video
Read the full article on NME here: Read More