August 04, 2008

By By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Like its predecessor "St. Anger," the new Metallica album, "Death Magnetic," will be released worldwide off-cycle on Friday Sept. 12 via Warner Bros. No reason was given for the switch from a traditional Monday/Tuesday release; in 2003, the group's label claimed Friday was chosen to prevent pirated copies of "St. Anger" from entering the marketplace.

On Friday, Metallica shot a video for first single "The Day That Never Comes" with director Thomas Vinterberg. "We spent the better part of the afternoon playing ... to a sold out crowd of dust and smoke just outside of Los Angeles," the band says on its Web site.

Metallica will be back on stage Saturday (Aug. 9) at Ozzfest in Dallas. At that gig, guitarist Kirk Hammett will join Slayer's Kerry King, Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell and Anthrax's Scott Ian in a tribute to late Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott, who was murdered on stage in Columbus, Ohio, in 2004.

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