The members of Metallica made their first appearance at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 19, 2013, at a panel where they brought the new trailer and exclusive footage for their upcoming 3D movie, Metallica Through The Never.

Everyone who attended the panel in Hall H had the chance to win tickets to go to a secret show the band was playing later that night, where they played mostly songs from their first four albums (“Fuel” was the newest song they played). The crowd at the Spreckels Theater in San Diego got to see Metallica in a rare, striped-down setting – no pyro, no stage set – playing tunes like “One,” “Ride The Lightning” (my favorite Metallica song ever), and “Creeping Death.”

Now, the band has released official video from the show, which you can watch here below. In the video, you’ll see the band perform “Seek and Destroy” live (which was the encore), as well as guitarist Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich switching instruments, band rehearsal, and Tuning Room footage.

Some of us in the Doom Crew called in a few favors [i.e., begged] to snag some tickets for ourselves and got to have Metallica rock our faces off for 90 minutes in a small, 1500-seat theater. In my defense, I’m going to say I deserved those tickets, as I’m a life-long Metallica fan and after attending many of their concerts since the 1980s, it meant a lot to me to get to see them in a small setting like this. I enjoyed the hell out of it and boy did I pay for it when I had to get up the next morning after 3 1/2 hours sleep and wait in the insane Hall H line. So, you see what I did for metal? \m/\m/

Photo above taken by me with my iPhone 5.

Metallica Through The Never will be released in North America on September 27, 2013 exclusively in over 300 IMAX 3D Theatres, and will expand into additional theaters on October 4, 2013.

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