Metallica Marching Band Contest Is Back

The guys in Metallica totally believe in giving back and last year, schools in Texas and New Mexico benefited greatly from their generosity.

Metallica are once again holding their "For Whom The Band Tolls" contest, a chance for high school and college marching bands to win cash for their music departments.

The contest is open to high school and college marching bands all over the country and thousands and thousands of dollars in musical equipment are up for grabs.

Competing bands are allowed to use Metallica's music royalty free and, last year, they posted a ton of marching band charts for bands to use that were done by Hal Leonard.

Last year, Boerne High School, located in Boerne, Texas, won one of the prizes for their version of For Whom The Bell Tolls. Their routine also included snippets of other Metallica songs - Enter Sandman, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets and Seek And Destroy.

Maybe some of those Boerne high schoolers are in college now and can try for a bigger score this year at the next level.

Speaking of the next level, Texas' neighbor to the north, New Mexico, had a winning college last year ... Eastern New Mexico University. They brought home $40K in prizing while Boerne, being in the high school category, brought home $15K.

Check out last years winners here and sign your high school or college marching band up for this years competition at the same link.

10 Facts About Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' Only Superfans Would Know

In so many ways, Metallica would never be the same after Master of Puppets hit the streets on March 3, 1986.

Because fans already know a lot about the record—like how the title for "Leper Messiah" was inspired by lyrics to David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" or that "The Thing That Should Not Be" has roots in H.P. Lovecraft's writings—we decided to dig deep into the history of Master of Puppets to pull out 10 facts that only superfans would know.