Back in 2021, Metallica launched their massive, ongoing archival project in The Metallica Black Box.
Functioning as living, evolving archival experience, the exploratory deep dive into each era of the band spanning from the early 1980’s garage days to Metallica’s current rank as rock and metal music royalty, offers yet another interactive element curated with the fans in mind.
The Metallica Black Box, launched in partnership with Inveniem and Definitive Authentic, and created a platform for Metallica to curate and showcase their generational collection of significant artifacts to better tell the complete and ongoing story of the band’s continued cultural impact.
The experience translates to a living, breathing, evolving museum with the band’s personal voice embedded into the collection.
For the most recent exhibition within the Black Box digital space, Metallica is revisiting the collection of assembled works featured in the 2012 art show, Obey Your Master. Originally taking place on January 20th 2012, at Exhibit A Gallery in Los Angeles, the presentation featured "artists from the worlds of fine art, fashion, film, music, and skate to interpret Metallica's songs in their own unique way."
Among the contributors that showcased mixed media, Metallica-inspired works included the likes of Shepard Fairey with his take on "Disposable Heroes", Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance offering his take on "One", Andy Biersack paying hmage to "Creeping Death" and Shawn Crahan presenting his vision of "Damage Inc."
The collection spans the world of art and culture, featuring works from skateboarding legends Steve Caballero and Tony Alva, revered tattooers Corey Miller and Shawn Barber, as well as accomplished artists Richard Villa III, Chad Michael Ward and Nathan Ota to name just a few.
The complete exhibition via Metallica's Black Box can be viewed - HERE