Bono might have gotten injured and forced a cancelation of U2‘s Tonight Show residency, but Metallica seem to be having a blast over at The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. “For Metallica,” Ferguson said at the top of the week, “it’s nine studio albums, four live albums, five EPs, 26 music videos, 37 singles, and one huge favor to our low-budget late-night trainwreck.” (Ferguson’s decade-long stint as the host of The Late Late Show will conclude on December 19; England’s James Corden takes over in March.)
On Wednesday night, the four-piece shredded “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” one of those 37 singles, from their 1984 sophomore LP Ride the Lightning:
Earlier in the week, Ferguson sat down with drummer Lars Ulrich and frontman James Hetfield for a chat. Since then, the band has kept it old school with “Hit the Lights,” the first track off the 1983 debut, Kill ‘Em All:
Then Metallica kept it medium-old school with an intense rendition of 1997’s “Fuel.” “My next guests are a bunch of kids that are trying their luck in show business,” Ferguson joked. “Gosh darn it, they’re just fabulous. They smell so great, and they’re clean.”
Part of Metallica’s visit to Ferguson’s show comes as a reminder that their documentary Some Kind of Monster will see a 10th anniversary Blu-ray release on November 24. The group will reportedly release its tenth album in 2015.