“Ride the Lightning” with musical icons Metallica and over 20 other rocking acts in an all new Guitar Hero experience - Guitar Hero Metallica. Enter the world of Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo and experience the intensity and skill of one of the greatest bands of all time. Shred on guitar, rip on drums and wail on the mic to a set list featuring over 45 explosive hits from Metallica’s illustrious career and a wide variety of other legendary artists personally selected by the band, such as Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters and Queen. Fans will be able to rock as Metallica while performing in venues reminiscent of the band’s epic album covers, themes from their music and real world locales.

Fans, stagehands and groupies alike will have the opportunity to shred and drum with or wail as the digital King Diamond during performances of “Evil.” The song, which originally was recorded in 1983 and is one of the Mercyful Fate songs that comprise Metallica’s “Mercyful Fate” medley, was re-recorded by four of the five original band members for Guitar Hero Metallica. The recording session was overseen by guitarist Hank Shermann in the band’s native Denmark; after which King Diamond laid down his vocals in Dallas, Texas, and mixed the song with J.T. Longoria.

GameStop will host midnight launch events for Guitar Hero: Metallica on Sat., March 28, 2009, at approximately 400 of its U.S. stores. Likewise, more than 2,600 stores on Sunday, March 29, will open early at 9 a.m. to begin their celebration of the video game release.

GameStop, the world’s largest video game and entertainment software retailer, has created several fun activities to commemorate the launch of this next edition in the successful Guitar Hero family.

These activities include:

• Guitar Hero in-store tournaments – test your fretting skills on songs from the Guitar Hero series.
• “Air Guitar” challenges – show off your best pull-offs and hammer-ons to popular Metallica and Metallica-inspired songs. Since true air guitar is an art form, not an actual skill, GameStop customers will vote on the winners in each participating store.
• “Total Head Banger” impersonation contests – GameStop challenges you to dress up like your favorite Metallica band member. The best look-a-likes will be eligible for prizes.
• Trivia challenges – find out how well you know the ins and outs of Metallica.

Key Features :

• Becoming the Band: For the first time ever, Guitar Hero Metallica will allow fans to come together and thrash as the explosive, world-renown metal and rock band, Metallica, whose album sales have exceeded 100 million worldwide. Transform into metal legends Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo as full body scans and signature moves motion capture allow players to virtually experience the high intensity of a Metallica performance.
• Live Like Metal Legends: Follow the path of the metal legends in either single instrument or band career game modes playing as the band to a soundtrack of their greatest hits while also rocking with over 20 additional artists selected by the band. Featuring in-the-round stage designs and custom camera angles new to Guitar Hero, further highlighted by custom lightshows, special effects and encores, gamers and Metallica fans alike can fulfill their rock ‘n’ roll fantasies in a variety of new and famous settings, ranging from Tushino Airfield to The Forum. All venues reflect Metallica’s most memorable tours including themes from their album artwork to offer the authentic Metallica atmosphere.
• Drum Like Lars: In addition to using the redesigned, more responsive and advanced Guitar Hero World Tour guitar controller and microphone, Metallica fans will truly be able to pound like Lars on the drums with a second bass pedal compatible with the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit controller. The all-new “Expert+” difficulty level gives gamers access to the double bass drum note track which offers the authentic Metallica experience with a note-for-note translation of many tracks appearing in-game and adds a new difficulty option to all gameplay modes.
• Seek and Destroy: Immerse yourself in themed Battle Mode attacks, such as briefly blacking out your fellow rocker’s note track or modifying the amp overload to include the signature Metallica lightening.
• Test Your Metal: After nailing a song, test your Metallica know-how by replaying the song with trivia pop-ups. The on-screen displays give information about the song being played, and with guest artist songs, information about how the band is tied to Metallica will be displayed along with details such as band history and lyrics.
• Off to Never Never Land: Guitar Hero Metallica is loaded with tons of bonuses throughout the game, such as unlockable venues, commentary, videos and behind the scenes footage, giving all Metallica fans exclusive content to enjoy.
• All that Remains: Guitar Hero Metallica cranks all the great features, gameplay and fun of Guitar Hero World Tour to a new level with updates to the Music Studio featuring samples from James Hetfield’s ESP Truckster guitar and of Slayer fame, Tom Araya’s signature ESP bass guitar, GHTunesSM, and the Rock Star Creator. Online game modes allow competing gamers to see who tops the charts in Face-Off, Pro Face-Off, eight-player “Battle of the Bands” and Battle Mode as well as the online Quickplay mode that allows up to four gamers to shred together regardless of physical location.

Metallica Tracks

1. All Nightmare Long
2. Battery
3. Creeping Death
4. Disposable Heroes
5. Dyers Eve
6. Enter Sandman
7. Fade To Black
8. Fight Fire With Fire
9. For Whom The Bell Tolls
10. Frantic
11. Fuel
12. Hit The Lights
13. King Nothing
14. Master of Puppets
15. Mercyful Fate (Medley)
16. No Leaf Clover
17. Nothing Else Matters
18. One
19. Orion
20. Sad But True
21. Seek And Destroy
22. The Memory Remains
23. The Shortest Straw
24. The Thing That Should Not Be
25. The Unforgiven
26. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
27. Wherever I May Roam
28. Whiplash

If you downloaded the "Death Magnetic" album for Xbox and PS3, those ten songs will play in their entirety in the full game mode. PS2 and Wii versions (coming in the Spring, most likely in early May) will include "Broken Beat & Scarred," "Cyanide" and "My Apocalypse" since they are not compatible with the Death Magnetic downloadable content.

Other Artists

1. Alice In Chains - No Excuses
2. Bob Seger - Turn The Page
3. Corrosion of Conformity - Albatross
4. Diamond Head - Am I Evil?
5. Foo Fighters - Stacked Actors
6. Judas Priest - Hell Bent For Leather
7. Kyuss - Demon Cleaner
8. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Tuesdays Gone
9. Machine Head - Beautiful Mourning
10. Mastodon - Blood And Thunder
11. Mercyful Fate - Evil
12. Michael Schenker Group - Armed and Ready
13. Motorhead - Ace of Spades
14. Queen - Stone Cold Crazy
15. Samhain - Mother of Mercy
16. Slayer - War Ensemble
17. Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster
18. Suicidal Tendencies - War Inside My Head
19. System of a Down - Toxicity
20. The Sword - Black River
21. Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back in Town

*tracklist subject to change*

Guitar Hero: Metallica will be out March 29 in North America for X360 and PS3, outside of North America early May. Wii and PS2 editions will follow later in Spring 2009.