METALLICA Frontman Talks About 'Six Feet Down Under' EP (Audio)

Sully of Australia's long-running rock station Triple M last week spoke to METALLICA frontman James Hetfield about the band's limited-edition eight-song live EP called "Six Feet Down Under", which came out on September 20 in conjunction with the band's tour of Australia and New Zealand. You can now listen to the chat below.

While the disc is available in stores only in those countries, fans around the world can also order a copy through the group's official web site.

A message posted at Metallica.com said that the EP was supposed to include recordings from each of the band's visits to the region "until we realized that we did not start making multi-track recordings of every show until 2004 . . . oops! But you guys, the fans, came to our rescue with some pretty decent bootleg options and we trimmed those down to two songs from each tour in 1989, 1993, 1998, and 2004."

"We wanted to put together just a piece of each time that we've been here and put it out," said Hetfield.

Hetfield went on to say the older tracks were bootlegged from fans in the crowd. "We didn't start recording tours until two tours ago. Now with the digital world you can record anything, anytime, anywhere. But back then we weren't really recording it… and somebody was, thank god," he laughed.

The album totally captures the raw feel of METALLICA's live concerts, warts n' all. And the band wasn't afraid to leave the rough bits in. Sully even noticed on one of the tracks there was some clapping from fans that was hilariously out of time.

"If you're starting especially a mellow song, it's human nature, man, you gonna start clapping," Hetfield said, "and you wanna hear yourself so you clap a little bit faster, a little louder and then everyone just does that.

"And it depends on where you are," he continued. "There are certain countries that have better rhythm than others.

Who's got the best rhythm? "The South American countries, especially Brazil. They've got some pretty good rhythm," Hetfield said. "America's the worst, man. They're, like, 'faster, faster, faster!' You know, that's the lifestyle. If it's faster, it's better," he laughed.

"Six Feet Down Under" track listing:

01. Eye of the Beholder (May 4, 1989 in Melbourne)
02. ...And Justice For All (May 4, 1989 in Melbourne)
03. Through the Never (April 8, 1993 in Perth)
04. The Unforgiven (April 4, 1993 in Melbourne)
05. Low Man's Lyric (Acoustic) (April 11, 1998 in Perth)
06. Devil's Dance (April 12, 1998 in Perth)
07. Frantic (January 21, 2004 in Sydney)
08. Fight Fire With Fire (January 19, 2004 in Brisbane)

METALLICA originally sold out its 13-show Australian/New Zealand tour within an hour of tickets going on sale. The Australian/New Zealand leg of the World Magnetic Tour 2010 initially sold more than 215,000 tickets, which promoter Michal Coppell said made it the fastest-selling arena tour of the year. The trek has since been expanded to include 20 concerts, which started on September 15 at Melbourne, Australia's Rod Laver Arena and is scheduled to end at the same venue on November 21.