Metallica announce winners of ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ marching band competition

Metallica have announced the official winners of their first ever ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ marching band competition.

The band launched the contest last April, with over 450 US colleges and high schools applying to enter.

Bands were challenges to create “their most exciting, unique and impressive performances of some of the band’s most beloved songs”, with the band supplying them with musical charts of songs including ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘Fade to Black’ and others.

The band chose the winners themselves in a number of categories, based on the school age groups. The biggest winners, in the College (Division 1) category, were Auburn University in Alabama, who will receive $75,000 (£58,800) worth of musical instruments and gear for their school.

Other winners include Eastern New Mexico University, Dobyns-Bennett High School in Tennessee, Boerne High School in Texas, Malverne High School in New York and Oakton High School in Virginia.

Check out footage of Auburn University’s prize-winning halftime Metallica marching band show above.

Earlier this month, the band’s frontman James Hetfield said that he would love somebody to create a microphone with a built-in straw.

Speaking on the band’s in-house podcast The Metallica Report, he said: “Being able to maybe sip some water while I’m playing, you know, some kind of straw on the microphone…that could be cool.”

Metallica will hit the road again in May 2024 for another leg of their M72 World Tour, for which they’ll play two nights in each city with two unique “no repeats” setlist and different support acts. The tour will wrap in Mexico in September 2024.

The band’s bassist Robert Trujillo, meanwhile, recently revealed why they tweaked their ‘M72’ tour setlist.