James Hetfield of Metallica has praised this newly formed American supergroup

Frontman James Hetfield discussed new music that has piqued his interest in an edition of The Metallica Report. He talked about how difficult it is for him to follow automated music recommendations. But what truly got his attention was a random encounter he had while listening to satellite radio.

As far as new music goes… Let’s see. I flipped through Sirius XM satellite radio a bunch. I mean, it’s just so easy to go on to your playlist and listen to the same stuff over and over. And if I’m not listening to the radio of some sort where someone else is in control, I’m not learning new stuff so much. I don’t like getting caught in that rabbit hole: ‘If you like this, you might like this.’ And then sometimes that works. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s a computer telling me what I might like. But listening to the radio, I guess the newest thing that I was surprised by and really made me smile was Category 7, a band that’s kind of a collaboration of few people. I was listening to it, I’m going, ‘That voice is awesome. And it sounds very familiar.

Hetfield was especially thrilled to learn that the voice of Category 7 was none other than Armored Saint‘s John Bush, whom Metallica had briefly contemplated replacing Hetfield as lead singer before Hetfield was hired permanently. Bush on vocals, guitarists Phil Demmel (Kerry King, ex-Vio-Lence) and Mike Orlando (ex-Adrenaline Mob), bassist Jack Gibson (Exodus), and drummer Jason Bittner (Overkill, Shadows Fall) make up the formidable roster of Category 7.

It was fricking John Bush, our singer that we never got. So I heard one song on the radio, and that’s it. And it was great. It was really good. And I’m glad that John has kind of gone out on his own and done his own thing. And he was so, so, so tied to Armored Saint and then the Anthrax thing. Yeah, it’s exciting.