Drummer: Cease and desist led to cool 'Seek and Destroy'

The Canadian Metallica tribute band, Sandman, has been in the spotlight recently – and not only for their power chords. The band was recently served cease and desist papers from their rock idols.

Sandman’s drummer, and Sudbury boy, Brent Niemi said the group received a 41-page letter from Metallica’s lawyer when they arrived at a gig in London, On., on Jan. 9.

“It was full of legal jargon,” Niemi said. “The lawyer was basically asking us to stop using our logo because it’s too close to Metallica’s.

“We kind of giggled and put it aside and played the show.”

News of the letter quickly went viral when Sandman guitarist Joe Di Taranto posted a photo of the document on Facebook.

“Word got back to the Metallica camp,” said Niemi.

Turns out, Metallica wasn’t aware of the letter and blamed their “overzealous attorney” for the mix up.

Metallica cleared it up in a statement to Rolling Stone.

"It turns out that a certain letter was delivered to the band Sandman that neither we nor our management were aware of until it surfaced online. Lucky for us, the band was kind enough to post it for us to see, and it turns out that we have a very overzealous attorney who sent this letter without our knowledge."

Sandman also received a personal call from Metallica’s Lars Ulrich.

“Lars took time out of his day to phone our guitar player to personally tell him ‘disregard the letter’ and ‘keep doing what you’re doing’.”

Niemi said the band has even more respect for their rock idols now than they had before.

“We always respected them but this went beyond the music,” Niemi said. “They’re actually cool humans and this just showed a lot of class.”

The cover band, which has been around since 1994, is no stranger to Greater Sudbury.

Sandman performed at the Coulson Nightclub many times in the past and Niemi is looking forward to bringing some loud Metallica metal to Sudbury again soon.