Orion Music + More

Over the weekend, Metallica launched their new annual music, arts and lifestyle festival called Orion Music + More. While the event featured the band performing their signature albums Metallica, a.k.a. the Black Album, and Ride the Lightning in their entirety, it also included more than 35 bands from a wide variety of musical genres. During a press conference with reporters on Friday, frontman James Hetfield said that one of the main reasons they created the event was to offer metal fans the opportunity to expand their musical horizons. “People come to a festival for the music, to hang with their friends, and soak up, hopefully, a different style of music,” explained the singer. “We’ve got the best of different kinds of music. There’s quite a few bands on the bill that I’m not a big fan of but I respect the fact that they’re good at what they do and opening the door for someone who might enjoy that is part of it as well.” Hetfield added that the festival was also created to help to promote emerging talent in the world of heavy metal music. “There’s a lot of…metal bands that need the exposure,” noted Hetfield. “We think they’re good and they need the exposure and we’re kind of doing our best to get them out in front of people. We’ve been blessed over the 30 years to have built up an amazing family and we’d like to share some of our family with some of these other bands.”