Despite its later-than-normal time and being completely virtual for the first time, yesterday’s BlizzCon keynote brought some exciting news and trailers. It also featured a musical performance by Metallica. The band is not new to BlizzCon, having first appeared at the conference in 2014.
Viewers on many platforms (including Blizzard’s own Twitch and YouTube channels) heard a performance of Metallica’s 1984 song, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. Several Twitch streamers broadcasting to BlizzCon have silenced the feed during the appearance of Metallica to avoid any potential DMCA issues.
But in the Twitch Gaming feed this was Furthermore carrying the stream, well, things took an incredible turn. A few seconds after the song started, the audio was replaced by what AV Club perfectly summed up as “the stupidest, most Zelda the music of the forest imaginable. ”
The transition really makes the whole story here, so watch:
It seems that the musical performance rights that Blizzard obtained for its own channels did not extend to Twitch’s internal gaming channel, so we were rewarded with this glorious moment. Could they just have cut the audio? Sure, but that wouldn’t have been so much fun. This version of the opening lecture flow currently has over 1.2 million views.
If you want to see Metallica’s real performance, it’s at 1:24:50 on YouTube or Twitch. But I? I will always remember that in the Twitch Gaming way. The right way.
And no, no one forgets that it happened with a Metallica presentation. There is a lot to chew with Napster and the DMCA contentious quagmires that pop up regularly today. But let’s leave that for another day. For now, imagine Lars Ulrich and company really enjoying this RPG adventure song. Everything synchronizes very well at times.