The undisputed kings of heavy metal, Metallica, made their very first appearance at San Diego Comic-Con today. All four members of the icon band – James Hetfield (vocals, guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums), Kirk Hammett (lead guitar), and Robert Trujillo (bass) – came to the convention center’s Hall H to promote their upcoming 3D film, Metallica Through The Never. Director/writer Nimród Antal (Predators) and producer Charlotte Huggins (Journey to the Center of the Earth) also appear on the panel, which revealed the world premiere of the film’s theatrical trailer and poster, as well as exclusive preview footage.

Check out the theatrical trailer and poster here below.

The movie stars the band in concert performance sequences, along with actor Dane DeHaan (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2) as Trip, a roadie who is sent on an urgent mission to pick up a bag during one of the band’s sold-out shows. Tripp’s mission gets diverted after his van crashes; when he emerges from the wreck, the city seems to have gone mad, with rioting and a masked horseman riding through the streets hacking at and lassoing the citizens. But Tripp still has his job to do and the audience is left to wonder, what’s in the bag?

The first trailer for the upcoming Metallica movie, titled Metallica: Through the Never, has been released online.

The movie is built around a live Metallica concert, as a roadie (played by Chronicle star Dane DeHaan) is sent out on a simple task that turns out to be much, much more than that as he finds himself in the middle of one wild and crazy situation after another.

Click on over to the other side now to check out a synopsis and the first trailer for Metallica: Through the Never.

If you’re a Metallica fan, then you know that frontman James Hetfield is fond of using the word “Yeah” in his songs – it’s quite prominent in the band’s music. The yeahs are all over Metallica’s 1983 debut Kill ‘Em All and can be heard on songs throughout their career, including their ever-popular Black Album all the way through their latest release, the EP Beyond Magnetic. It’s there on tracks like “Enter Sandman,” “Wherever I May Roam,” “Fuel,” and “The Memory Remains,” and even on cover songs, like Budgie’s “Crash Course In Brain Surgery” as well as the 11-minute fucking awesome medley of Mercyful Fate songs, both available on Metallica’s 27-track album of covers, Garage Inc. Let’s face it, at this point, the Yeah’ing has become an artform and Hetfield is the master.

Now, a clever bastard by the name of Kevin Conklin has compiled EVERY “Yeah” ever recorded by Metallica into one mega-awesome audio supercut. Check out the audio here below; it’s 3:16 minutes of pure “yeah-yeah” goodness.

Any of you out there old enough to remember a time when Metallica proclaimed that they would never make music videos? That was a long time ago, back before they did their first video for the song “One” off their 1988 album …And Justice For All (and what an awesome video it was). Since then, they’ve made plenty more, some of which we probably could have done without (“Until It Sleeps”?).

For St. Patrick’s Day in 1999, Metallica released the music video for their cover of Irish rockers Thin Lizzy’s rendition of the Irish traditional tune “Whiskey in the Jar.” The song was one of 27 tracks off the band’s cover album, Garage Inc., and went on to earn Metallica a Grammy in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Performance. The video for “Whiskey in the Jar” features the members of Metallica — including Jason Newsted on bass — performing as the band at a rowdy all-female house party.

Watch the Metallica “Whiskey in the Jar” video here below.

Today, February 10, would have been the 52nd birthday of bass player Cliff Burton, whose “lead passages” on his instrument helped propel Metallica into a hard-crunching, heavy metal ensemble, and started them on the road to the mammoth success they would eventually have as the 1980s wore on and beyond. Burton, who had made a huge impact and looming presence on the band’s first three albums, died on September 27, 1986, in Sweden, when Metallica’s tour bus flipped over in an accident, killing him at the young age of 24.

The legacy of Cliff Burton still remains more than just a footnote in the Metallica history, it also remains a firm notch in the formative years of the band. Like Duane Allman, the ill-fated guitarist from The Allman Brothers, who also died tragically at the age of 24 and who also left a huge indelible mark on music history, Cliff Burton’s short time on this planet will always be remembered for helping Metallica steer their ship in the right direction, setting sail in the heavy metal/thrash metal genre and then in his death, casting them off to chart areas of success which elevated them into becoming one of the biggest bands of all time, transcending the genre while doing so.