Metallica Crypto Scams Emerge Amid New Album Announcement, Pay Attention to These Details

After the official announcement, the whole internet is buzzing about Metallica and their new album. Along with the news came the band’s first single, titled “Lux Æterna.” But with every announcement like this one comes the risk of a potential scam riding on the hype train. Some of the recent Reddit threads reveal one YouTube channel that mimics official Metallica and promotes a “crypto giveaway.”

Of course, nothing in life is free and you won’t be getting an early official stream of Metallica’s new album. Titled “72 Seasons,” it officially comes out in April 2023. There seems to have been more than one of these scam videos on YouTube and some have been removed. But the one that seems to be doing the best, and that was recommended to us as well, includes a supposed “live stream” of the new album with a detailed description. But instead of an album, there’s a non-stop stream of past Metallica interviews. At a first glance, these might look legitimate. However, taking a closer look, it’s really easy to notice the scam. Here are some screenshots.

We’ve deliberately redacted the video title, the link in the chat, as well as the QR code in the video. Now, let’s take a closer look at the profile information next to the subscription button.

Apart from lacking the official checkmark and having fewer than 1,000 followers, you can notice that it doesn’t say “Metallica” but rather uses an uppercase letter “I” instead of the first lowercase “L.”

One of the Reddit users commented:

“They’ve been live streaming all day from different bogus channels. Please report them to YouTube every time you see one.”

Another one adds:

“This is not the official Metallica channel. Metallica has millions of subscribers. This one doesn’t even have 1000.

We urge all fans to be extra careful in the coming days and weeks and be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Apart from the fact that Metallica never did any crypto giveaways (to our knowledge), no official statements from band’s channels say anything about an album stream. What makes the thing extra tricky is that YouTube recommends these videos, both on the main page recommendations and on the search page. Here’s an example:

NOTE: These are the official Metallica links. We urge all fans to be careful and double-check any potential YouTube or other social media scams.

Photos: Kreepin Deth (Metallica Live at The O2, London, England, 22 October 2017 (cropped))

  • David Slavkovic

    David always planned for music to be nothing more than a hobby. However, after a short career as an agricultural engineer he ended up news editor at KillerGuitarRigs, senior editor at Ultimate-Guitar.com, as well as a freelance contributor to online magazines such as GuitaristNextdoor and brands like Sam Ash.