On the latest episode of “The Metallica Report” podcast, Metallica frontman James Hetfield answered fan questions, and he revealed a new band that he’s really into.
“I flip through Sirius a bunch,” he said of trying to discover new bands. “It’s just so easy to go on to your playlists and listen to the same stuff over and over. If I’m not listening to the radio of some sort or someone else is in control, I’m not learning new stuff so much. I don’t like getting caught in that rabbit hole of, ‘If you like this, you might like this.’ Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s a computer telling me what I might like.”
Hetfield said that he caught the band Category 7 by flipping through the channels. The group features Armored Saint/ex-Anthrax frontman John Bush.
“Listening to the radio, I guess the newest thing that I was surprised by and really made me smile was Category 7, a band that is kind of a collaboration of a few people. I was listening to it going, ‘That voice is awesome and it sounds very familiar.’ It was freakin’ John Bush, our singer we never got,” Hetfield continued. “Brian Slagel has signed them. I heard one song on the radio and that’s it and it was great. It was really good.”
Category 7 also features former Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, Adrenaline Mob guitarist Mike Orlando, Exodus bassist Jack Gibson and Overkill/Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner.
Bush was actually approached in the early ’80s to be Metallica’s singer, but at the time Armored Saint was actually more established, so Bush turned down the offer.
Check out a couple songs from Category 7 below. The band’s self-titled debut will be released on July 26.
