The Guitar Hero: Metallica demo hit Xbox Live Arcade today, so I dusted off my plastic guitar and unearthed my drum kit to bring you the word.  Thick distortion, driving bass drums, and visceral growling awaits you after the jump.

Guitar Hero: Metallica begins with an animated video featuring to four members of the legendary metal band.  The intro cartoon falls in line with the artistic style of recent Guitar Hero games, but adds a darker edge to accommodate the heaviness of the metal within.  Art and logos from Metallica’s past albums and posters are scattered throughout the menus, creating a euphoric playground for fans of the band.

Clicking on the “Backstage” option leads you to a character menu.  All the Guitar Hero standbys are included, but they’ve been metallicized.  Grungier, and angrier, all your favorites like Izzy Sparks and Pandora are decidedly harder edged (yet somehow Lars Umlaut seems less metal).  The full character creator was not available in the demo, but the templates for custom rockers were visible and include black metal, goth, pop, glam, etc.

The new HUD is much more accessible for your eyeballs

The in-game presentation of the game carries the graphical polish of Guitar Hero: Wolrd Tour, but now with Metallica fully rendered and viewable when playing their songs.  The band held unique motion captures sessions for each song in the game, and the attention to detail shows through as they thrash away.  A grainy, black and white filter offers an old school hand-cam look when you play an older song from their set list, adding a nostalgic vibe to the performance.  The game’s HUD also has had a makeover and now displays a meter to the right, just below your score, which tracks your star collection progress.

Let’s move on to the meaty, bloody heart of the game; the songs.  “No Excuses” by Alice in Chains, “Stone Cold Crazy,” by Queen, and of course the two Metallica songs are “Sad but True” and “Seek and Destroy.”  I played all four songs on expert guitar first, and the game feels as smooth and responsive as its predecessors.  Guitar Hero: Metallica also includes the new slide bar feature that was introduced in the last game, and it fits right in with the furious hammer-ons and pull-offs of the songs.  I stumbled through a few of the more ferocious solos in “Seek and Destroy,” but I loved every moment of it and didn’t have too many problems otherwise as the note layout is near perfect.

The game versions of Metallica look spot on

It appears that the game may not be the carpal tunnel-inducing shred-fest it appears to be, however, as “Sad but True” and “No Excuses” drastically slow down the tempo from a thrash to a chug. This isn’t all bad, as it will offer your fingers a break from the furious fretting.  Also, be warned when picking up the bass, as these aren’t your grandpa’s base lines.  Cliff Burton’s frenzied bass riffs throws challenging rhythms at you, testing your ability to play outside the box.

I played the drums for the two Metallica songs, and had wildly different experiences on each.  I was able to complete the slower “Sad but True” on expert mode without too much fumbling with the sticks, but couldn’t get past 60% on the brutal beats of “Seek and Destroy.”  If you are a Rock Band/ Guitar Hero drummer that is thirsting for some challenge, this might be your game.

So far the game looks great and carries with it enough character and uniqueness to be more than DLC for Guitar Hero: World Tour. Even if you’re not a die hard Metallica fan and only enjoy a few of their songs, the tunes so far are catchy and fun to play with a set list promises tons of other great bands.  If you’re a metal fan, this will be your Guitar Hero Holy Grail. The game releases March 29^th, so check back after that for a full review.