The gang at Loudwire teamed up with the folks over at Filthy Frackers to create a video of a “what if” NES-style 8-bit video game featuring the thrash metal giants of The Big 4 – Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax.

The 83-second 8-bit animated video with chiptune audio features Metallica’s “One,” including scenes from the video of the band members as well as the footage from the Johnny Got His Gun movie; Slayer’s “Raining Blood” (with the band in a live performance sequence); Megadeth’s “Sweating Bullets,” which showcases frontman Dave Mustaine’s multiple personalities from the video; and Anthrax’s “Madhouse,” with zany footage from that music video, as well as guest appearances from retro gaming characters.

Watch the video here below.

I know what you’re thinking: “Ides has lost it. The old boy’s gone senile and forgotten that he just featured Metallica in last week’s Thrashback Thursday!”

Well, fear not dear reader, there is a reason for my redundancy. I awoke this morning to see an article which pointed out that today is the 26th anniversary of the release of the video for “One.” This was such a watershed moment in the history of thrash that I felt it remiss to let it pass without acknowledging it.

“One” is the last track on the first side (anyone remember album sides?) of the record that many (myself included) consider to be Metallica’s last great work,
… And Justice For All. It marks the moment that Metallica ceased to be an underground phenomenon and broke through to the mainstream, on their way to becoming the biggest metal band in the world. It was the first time that the band had made a video and the heavy rotation from MTV and other video outlets would propel the song to #35 on the Billboard charts, making it the Metallica’s first top 40 hit.

I found myself the other day trying to explain to my kids the immense impact that Metallica had on the metal underground when they first burst onto the scene in 1982. That’s right kids; Metallica was an underground (and cutting edge) band once upon a time. Their debut album
Kill ‘Em All did exactly as it’s title promised. It was a manifesto… a declaration… Metallica were about to take over the world and indeed kill ’em all.

For the next eight years, through endless touring, tragedy and triumph, and four albums that would become the very pillars upon which modern metal is built, Metallica would rule at the forefront of the metal underground. There is no way to describe to someone who wasn’t there the amount of reverence that we metalheads held for this band during those years. And then came the black album and Metallica was no longer the metal world’s underground darlings. But that’s a story for another Thursday.

Here is the shot heard ’round the world, “Hit The Lights” the opening track of Metallica’s landmark debut album Kill ‘Em All.

Welcome back to another edition of The Digital Wire. For this week’s roundup of the coolest upcoming Blu-ray and DVD release news, we have a sorely neglected summer sci-fi thrill ride, an epic documentary about one of the world’s greatest heavy metal bands, a Bigfoot movie made by a stand-up comedian, a pair of obscure westerns starring a baby-faced Jack Nicholson, and an Oscar-winning comedy starring Dustin Hoffman in drag.

Below you’ll find info on several future home video releases complete with technical specs, release dates, and links to pre-order at Amazon. We would greatly appreciate it if you use those links to order because a small percentage of each order helps keep this website running at max power.

Here with the opening track of their 1986 debut album
Doomsday for the Deceiver is Phoenix, Arizona’s Flotsam and Jetsam.

The album was the first in history to receive 6 Ks from Kerrang Magazine (their version of a perfect score). Flotsam remains active to this day, though they are still best known as the band that bassist Jason Newsted left to join Metallica after the tragic accident that killed Cliff Burton in 1986. While all five band members share music credit for Doomsday, Newsted was the lead lyricist, solely writing all but three songs (for those he had co-writing credit).