St. Vincent is releasing a cover of Metallica's Sad but True

Last month, St. Vincent revealed that a “heavy record” was in the works prior to the production of her upcoming album, Daddy's Home. Well, while there's no fresh news on that front, we are set to hear a new heavy offering from Annie Clark.

As part of an exclusive Record Store Day release, the mercurial guitarist has recorded a cover of Metallica's Sad But True, taken from their 1991 self-titled full-length (aka the Black Album). It follows her cover of Nine Inch Nails' Piggy with Dave Grohl, which was released in November last year.

Clark's covers of Sad But True and Piggy make up a new limited-edition 7" vinyl release – entitled St. Vincent in a nod to Metallica's self-titled offering – which drops July 17 via Loma Vista Recordings, with only 3,200 copies available.

And Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett could well be first in line to pick up the new release, after heaping praise on Clark during a Guitar World roundtable earlier this year.

“I love her riffs,“ he told us. “The way she writes, some of her musical motifs are just so different from anything I would ever play. I find that so intriguing. 

“And I love the fact that she understands totally what she’s doing and she understands the theory behind it. For me, that always adds another dimension of respectability – knowing that the person’s not just fucking winging it and all of a sudden stepping in something.”

During a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Clark dove deeper into her love of Metallica.

“I think one of the reasons why Metallica has spoken to me for so many years [is that] I’m a fucking angry person too, and I just connected to that rage,” she said. 

“I grew up in Dallas, in the suburbs. I don’t know that I necessarily presented as an outsider, but I always felt like an outsider. It’s funny because that kind of rage, you have to figure out how to not walk around screaming, doing terrible things.”