My general feeling about Metallica is they’re washed up, used, irrelevant and more than a bit embarrassing for many years now. The drummer is annoying and what they put out now is hardly what I would consider Metal, Thrash or otherwise.

From the whining over Napster, back in 2000 to the overall, professional douchebaggery of their drummer, they lost whatever was left of any respect from my adolescence.

Now, I see they want you to pay for the ability to watch promotional in-studio videos of their up-and-coming album. With price packages ranging from $24.99 to a whopping $124.99, with hardly any real value in the products, I’m thinking they’re sounding their own death knell to whatever is left of a paying consumer base that retains more than a couple brain cells.

Since when did a successful marketing and promotional campaign start with requiring consumers to pay? Is the album that bad?

With their bratty and self-defeating stance on digital media and DRM, they basically beg to be pirated. Why drop cash onto their already significant earnings if they treat some of their base as criminals and the rest as suckers? Really, why even listen to them?