Activision Planning Guitar Hero: Metallica

Activision's next full-band Guitar Hero title will be Guitar Hero: Metallica...but will fans still dub the the band "unforgiven?"

In a proxy statement filed with the Security and Exchange Commission, game developer Activision has perhaps inadvertently revealed that its next planned full-band Guitar Hero installment is Guitar Hero: Metallica, no doubt focusing on the powerful riffs, double kick-fueled aggression, and sheer volume of the well known hard rock band. Although Metallica’s forceful music is perhaps a perfect fit for much of Guitar Hero’s male, teenage demographic, long-time fans may still be smarting from the band’s lawsuit-riddled reaction to Napster, reticence to make its music availabe via iTunes, and general resistance to the digital music world.

Activision has already announced a Guitar Hero title centered on Aerosmith, in which players will take on roles of Aerosmith band members as the band struggles from being a struggling rock band to a worldwide arena phenomenon. Presumably, a Metallica-based title will follow a similar concept, although Activision may have a little more difficulty manuevering around some of the more compilcated points of Metallica’s history, such as the death of bassist Cliff Burton, the departure of bassist Jason Newsted, singer James Hetfield’s stint in rehab, and the reasons the band was widely known as "Alcoholica" for years in music circles.

Of course, we doubt Activision is going to focus on Aerosmith members’ hard partying, drug use, infighting, and drug rehab. Aereosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are still known as the "toxic twins" for their combined drug and alcohol abuse in the 1970s.

Metallica may have some hard work ahead to mend fences with digital and online fans. The band famously led the charge against the original incarnation of Napster, suing the file-sharing service in 2000 for copyright violation and piracy. Although Metallica eventually let its catalog go on sale on iTunes (and the re-incarnated Napster) in 2006, the band’s efforts to embrace online fans—like it’s Mission: Metallica site—have been greeted with a lukewarm response, with some fans saying they’ll only buy Metallica’s new material so they can distribute it online.

Perhaps Activision will be able to use the controversy surround Metallica’s online presense to fuel the story in its upcoming video game.

Unsurprisingly, Activision also revealed it’s working on Guitar Hero IV and Call of Duty 5 in the same SEC filing.