Metallica Set Second Annual Marching Band Competition

For a second year, Metallica will award tens of thousands of dollars to high school and college marching bands that perform their songs in creative ways. The band announced what’s officially known as the “Metallica Marching Band Competition” second annual competition in a video Thursday. “Together with our sponsors, we’re going to award over a quarter of a million dollars in brand-new gear to the winning high school, college, and university marching bands from around the U.S.,” drummer Lars Ulrich explains, while Robert Trujillo encourages the musicians to make the performances impressive and creative.

The video shows marching bands in formation as the group’s logo and spelling the word “Sandman” as people twirl flags behind them. “Good luck to everyone and remember, ‘Time marches on,’” Kirk Hammett bellows into a traffic cone — the same one that James Hetfield used to start the video — as he quotes the band’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

Interested marching band leaders can register their ensembles at MetallicaMarchingBand.com. Entrants will be able to use the band’s own official marching band charts for the music. Available songs include the group’s biggest hits (“Enter Sandman,” “Master of Puppets,” “One”), finger-breaking thrashers (“Hit the Lights,” “Lux Æterna”), and two new additions this year (the brooding “Until It Sleeps” and nearly 10-minute “…And Justice for All.”)

The group has allocated $270,000 in prizing, which it has divided between collegiate and high school categories, with $10,000 of that reserved for a fan vote.

Bands can sign up from now until September 23 and submit video of their performances as late as Nov. 29. Fans will be able to vote through the end of the year. Metallica will announce the winners the week of Jan. 13.

Last year’s big winners include Auburn University, Eastern New Mexico University, and Vienna, Virgnia’s Oakton High School. The group collected their submissions in a video.