Metallica "Beyond Magnetic (EP)"

Beyond Magnetic is a 2011 EP by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released to coincide with the band's 30th anniversary shows, in which they released a new song for all four days of the shows. It was originally released as a digital download only on iTunes on December 13, 2011. All four songs featured on Beyond Magnetic were all recorded for the group's Death Magnetic sessions but had not been released. Beyond Magnetic was released on CD on January 30, 2012, internationally, and on the following day in the United States. As of September 2016, Beyond Magnetic sold over 210,000 copies in the U.S.

The band stated the following about the EP:

During the Death Magnetic album sessions in 2007 and 2008, we originally recorded 14 songs. When it came time to pick the songs for the final album, we decided on 10 songs that you've all come to know over the last three years... Some of you may have heard bits and pieces of those other songs on 'Mission Metallica' (remember 'Mission Metallica'?!) or heard rumors about them during the recording process, and wondered, 'What ever happened to those other four songs???.' We kept them in the vault and decided to pull them just for this special celebration, so here are the four leftover tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions. They are ROUGH mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March '08. These four songs were released as a gift to our closest fans, the members of our Fan Club, to enjoy. Now they're being made available to you.

On January 3, 2012, Metallica announced that Beyond Magnetic was to be released as a CD on January 31 in the US and January 30 internationally. It was also announced that the EP would be released on vinyl, and would be made available on April 21 in celebration of Record Store Day.

The songs on this EP were recorded during the "Death Magnetic" sessions.

The songs were initially given away separately by e-mail to members of the Metallica fanclub, and later made available for sale exclusively via iTunes.

With each track release, the logos changed colours:
Hate Train - green
Just a Bullet Away - Yellow
Hell and Back - White

Rebel of Babylon - Red

Recorded April 2007 - March 2008, at Sound City in Van Nuys, CA, Shangri La in Malibu, CA & HQ, San Rafael, CA.

Rough mixed on March 28, 2008.