Metallica have announced plans to release an early demo on cassette as part of this year’s Record Store Day.
The band will release ‘No Life ‘Til Leather’ via their own Blackened Recordings label. The music on the cassette dates back to 1982, the year before Metallica released debut album ‘Kill ‘Em All’, and is the first time any of the band’s early material has been released officially.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, drummer Lars Ulrich confirmed that the original tapes have been remastered to maintain “the same innocence and, I guess, borderline ignorance, of four kids barely out of puberty, rockin’ along, doing their thing”.
Ulrich also revealed that this release will be the first of a series of Metallica reissues and that the album will be released on expanded CD and vinyl versions this summer.
Metallica are currently working on a new album, expected to be released in 2015. The band released their last album ‘Death Magnetic’ in 2008, their ninth studio effort to date.
Meanwhile, Metallica are one of the headline acts for the Reading and Leeds festival alongside The Libertines and Mumford and Sons. It’ll be their first time at the festival since topping the bill in 2008.