Metallica is a music legend for many reasons: being pioneers of metal, being covered by Stranger Things‘ Eddie Munson, and they are now going to be remembered for another iconic move, as Metallica releases American Sign Language (ASL) videos for all of the tracks on their new album, making them the first-ever major rock band to do so.
On April 15, National American Sign Language Day, the band announced the project and dropped the ASL music video for the title track from their 11th studio album, “72 Seasons.” They released the rest of the videos on April 25.
For the project, they partnered with Deaf Professional Arts Network (DPAN) and sign language interpreter Amber Galloway’s production company Amber G Productions. Galloway is well known in the festival circuit, having interpreted songs at a number of music festivals around the U.S., including Lollapalooza. The video for “72 Seasons” sees a split screen, with Amber interpreting (and fully rocking out) on one side, and the music video on the other. The other videos have the same visual setup, featuring a number of different interpreters.
In the statement about the new releases, they said of Galloway: “Her company specializes in the interpretation of concerts and music festivals and has been instrumental helping us to be the first rock artists to create ASL video versions of an entire album using Deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing interpreters.
“DPAN, The Deaf Professional Arts Network, is a 501c3 nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by deaf musician Sean Forbes, and music producer Joel Martin to make music accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing community.”
They ended their statement by saying, “It’s been an honor to work with Amber and DPAN teams, and we hope that our fans in the deaf and hard of hearing community enjoy experiencing the album through these videos!”
I think it’s excellent for Metallica to consider their deaf fans and to be so involved in making their music accessible to anyone who wishes to listen. Hopefully more major bands will follow suit.
(featured image: screenshot)
