Following in the tradition of this yuletide spirit of giving, seasoned thrash-metal titans, Metallica unleashed a 12-second-snippet of a brand new song from their forthcoming follow-up to 2008’s Death Magnetic.  

While made available only to exclusive members of Metallica.com, membership is absolutely free.  Issuing the standard e-mail verification, once in the circle users have full-frontal access to view the quaint video-clip: “Happy Holidayz from Metallica.”  Greeted by metal’s own sultan of swagger, himself, Metallica frontman James Hetfield, holding his furry-little-friend, pet-cat Tabs pushes the play button in the studio to reveal an all-new original Metallica tune:

“We thought we’d give you a little bit of ear candy for the holidays,” proclaims Hetfield with a gleeful-grin.

Culled from the depths of thrash-riddled-angst, the brief but poignant snippet flexes Hetfield’s signature vocal-caroosing atop the fast-ripping crunch of a brazen-laid riff by guitarist, Kirk Hammett.

While no true release date has been revealed for their upcoming effort, 2016 will mark the 30th anniversary of the metal-milestone, Master of Puppets.  Featuring the bass-laden exploits of the late-great Cliff Burton, Metallica is putting the finishing-touches on a personalized photo-book to commemorate the album’s anniversary. Chock-full of never-before-seen photo’s from the band’s own personal archives, the book will detail exclusive interviews with the band as well as crew members from the tour.