Metallica’s No Life ‘Til Leather demo tape reissue has been delayed due to legal issues, drummer Lars Ulrich confirms.
The expanded version of the 1982 original was meant to launch last summer on CD, vinyl and a limited-edition deluxe box set following its Record Store Day cassette tape launch last year. It was also to feature artwork from Ulrich’s own personal copy of the original demo, as well as his handwriting.
He tells Metal Forces: “There were some unexpected difficulties on the legal side that prevented the No Life ‘Til Leather box set and our vision for how we were going to kick this whole reissue series off.
“We spent some time doing that dance, but then James and I decided that it wasn’t worth it getting bogged down in all the unpleasantries, because this was supposed to be a celebration and not end up being a tug of war, so we thought, ‘You know what? Fuck it. We’ll just move on to Kill ‘Em All.’
“There’s no reason to go deeper into it. It was just something that we hadn’t expected.”
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But Ulrich adds that he’s hopeful the demo will one day be reissued.
He continues: “As you know, I am the eternal optimist, and I am the eternal ‘glass is well fucking half full,’ so who knows?
“I think some of those parties have circled back around now that they’ve seen that this is real and so we’ll have to see. It would be great to share No Life ‘Til Leather in a year or two with our fans and with the people that care. We haven’t shut the door on it.”
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that vocalist James Hetfield will feature on the title track of Heart’s latest record, Beautiful Broken, which is due out on July 8.
