Following in the proud tradition of, well, Aerosmith, Metallica will be honored with its own version of Guitar Hero sometime in 2009. Of course, with Metallica’s recent track record, I’m a little concerned that the song selection might be a bit troublesome for the band, and by that, I mean the game might feature any of its recent material. As a helpful service, a few suggestions below the cut.

To be frank, if the band just went with the entirety of Kill ‘Em All, that would be fine by me, but that seems somewhat unlikely. If it’s down to just one track (outside of the obvious “Seek and Destroy”), how about “Jump In The Fire”?

I don’t know much about “Guitar Hero,” but Ride The Lightning seems the most smashing-colored-buttons-on-a-plastic-guitar-ready of the albums I’ve willing to think about, given that it contains both “Creeping Death” and “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” However, may I suggest the title track, a subtle discussion of the ethical dilemmas surrounding the death penalty?

Thinking of a track to choose from Master Of Puppets made me think about how strange this whole Metallica/video game idea is. Puppets might be the greatest metal album of all time, and Metallica certainly crossed over to a much larger audience afterwards. But when these albums were coming out on vinyl and having a Metallica concert shirt was like joining a bad-ass club of outsiders, I’m not sure the idea of sort of playing these songs by yourself while staring a television was conceivable. The dissolution of Metallica’s bad-ass aesthetic (I should have never watched Some Kind Of Monster, that’s for sure) will seem complete whenever this thing comes out. Anyhow, here’s “Damage, Inc.”.

In retrospect, I should have seen the sea change coming with And Justice For All: the guitars sound a little thinner, and the entire disc leans toward an ambition to move beyond just being the greatest metal band in the world, an ambition that would eventually make anything past the self-titled album difficult/impossible to enjoy. Then again, could any band have sustained the energy it must have taken to make those first three albums? After all, there’s modern art to buy and therapy sessions to attend. I’m sure that “One” will be included from And Justice…, but I’ll cross my fingers for “Harvester of Sorrow” as well.

Of course, the game will probably just consist of tracks from Reload and the new disc, because Metallica clearly has it out for me at this point.

Activision Plans ‘Guitar Hero: Metallica’ [The Street]