If there's anything we've learnt from this year, it's that love for Metallica spans all generations. People of all ages have a kinship for the San Francisco heavyweights, whether they discovered them back in the '80s, or heard Master Of Puppets for the first time in the latest series of the sci-fi/horror TV series Stranger Things.
This pan-generational appeal is illustrated in a newly uploaded video, where one of their younger fans is filmed playing a Metallica song in Cardiff while busking. Captured by TikTok user Josh Blockwell, the long-haired kid can be seen absolutely nailing 1986's Master Of Puppets on guitar, seemingly with little effort.
Captioning the video, Blockwell writes: "Out in Cardiff and saw a kid plug in his #paulgilbert signature and thought I’d stick around. Did not expect to stay there with my jaw on the floor while he hammered out Master of Puppets flawlessly!".
The impressive cover has even come upon the radar of Metallica themselves, who have offered their seal of approval via a set of devil horns in the comments.
Although the boy's identity is currently unknown, one woman in the comment section claims to be his auntie and says that "he’ll be thrilled!" to see he's received support from Metallica.
In a later comment she writes, "Just told my nephew you commented @metallica it’s made his day! Thank you." Hopefully we'll see a reaction video soon.
Other viewers appear just as elated with the busker's cover, with many comments jokingly declaring that they want to quit playing guitar themselves after watching such brilliant talent come from someone of such a young age. "Bout to quit yall😭💀" says one user, while another quips, "that's it...I'm dumping guitar playing".
There's also a number of comments suggesting Metallica hire him, describing the boy as "Little Kurt" and as the band's "5th member".
At this time of writing, the video has amassed 130k likes and over 600k views.
Check it out below:
@fixer17d ♬ original sound - joshblockwell
Earlier this year, Metallica slapped down a fan on TikTok for trying to gatekeep their music after its use in Stranger Things in its fourth and latest season.
After uploading a video of a live performance of the track onto their TikTok account on July 6 with the caption, "Heard any cool songs lately?", in the comments one fan wrote: "I'm sorry Metallica for all the fake Stranger Things fans love ya".
In response, the band hit back, writing: "Don't be sorry. Everyone is welcome in the Metallica Family. If they like Puppets, chances are they'll find plenty of other songs to get into".
To address gatekeeping as a whole, they pinned a message to the top of the comment section, writing: "FYI - EVERYONE is welcome in the Metallica Family. Whether you’ve been a fan for 40 hours or 40 years, we all share a bond through music.
"All of you started at ground zero at one point in time. 🤘🏻"
