Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett will be at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con later this month where he’ll be signing his new limited edition zombie action figure.

The Famous Zombies Jr. limited edition green Hammett figure, which is being released by the guitarist’s own Kirk Von Hammett Toys with an edition of only 300, will be a SDCC exclusive and Hammett will be on site at the Con to sign. You can catch Hammett, whose 2012 book Too Much Horror Business shows off his vast array of horror collectibles, at the Nuclear Blast SDCC booth 503 on Friday, July 25th from 1pm to 2pm, and on Saturday July 26th from 2pm to 3pm. Beginning on Wednesday July 23, Con attendees will be able to purchase tickets for the Friday appearance and once those are sold out, Saturday tickets will be released. Tickets will be available at the Nuclear Blast Records/Stern Pinball/JSR merch booth (503).

Check out a photo here below of the exclusive figure, along with Hammett’s thoughts on the upcoming event.

Metallica must REALLY need cash! That’s the only explanation that I can come up with for the lows that they are willing to sink to these days. In their latest display of shameless corporate whoring, they appear in an ESPN commercial, shilling for the network’s show Sports Center.

Granted, the ad is actually sort of funny, but c’mon… you just know that these meat-head jock dudes are the same guys that were giving Kirk Hammett swirlys in the junior high boys bathroom.

Maybe I’m just bitter. Judge for yourself…

For my first Thrashback Thursday post on Geeks Of Doom, I am going back to where it all started for me. My friend Tony had told me “There is this new band called Metallica that you have to hear… they’re amazing!” So off I trekked on my bicycle to my local record store and bought 1984’s Ride the Lightning on vinyl.

When I got home and dropped the needle on the first song, I was met by this beautiful little acoustic guitar part. I remember thinking “Well, this is nice and all, but…” and then it happened. When “Fight Fire with Fire” kicked into full swing, my life was very literally changed forever. Say what you will about their later output, those first four Metallica albums will always be the pillars of thrash to me. So here with the opening track of Ride the Lightning is Metallica live in Canada in 1986 on the Master of Puppets tour. You can check it out below.

Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album, best known as The Black Album, a record which has remained a sort of crossroads for the legendary hyper thrash/hyper progressive foursome, has for a long time been the best-selling album in the history of Nielsen Soundscan. Now, the record has become the first album to scan over 16 million units in SoundScan’s history.

The Black Album also holds the record for the most weeks spent on the Billboard 200 chart in the Nielsen SoundScan era, perched high up atop that vaunted spot for a mind-boggling 307 weeks and counting, as well as being the third-longest charted record in Billboard history. This distinction makes The Black Album only trail behind only two other seminal and influential records which hold the number one and two spot in that category — Pink Floyd’s sonic landmark Dark Side of the Moon and singer/songwriter Carole King’s emotional and complex pop music magnum opus Tapestry respectively. It’s also the sixth longest-charting album of any kind in Billboard history.

Metallica has performed all over the world on every continent except Antarctica — until now! The band ventured to the frozen continent to perform their very first show there, which took place on December 8, 2014 near the heliport of the Argentine Antarctic Base Carlini.

Research station scientists from various countries as well as contest winners were in attendance at the historic show, which featured the band members — singer/guitarist James Hetfield, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, drummer Lars Ulrich, and bassist Robert Trujillo — playing inside a clear dome with no amplification with the fans listening to the concert through headphones.

Check out a few photos here below the band released from their antarctic performance.