Beatallica

Beatallica is an internet-based 'mash' band, covering The Beatles songs in the style of Metallica, with adapted lyrics focusing on metal, beer and attacking poseurs.

The band has released two albums; 'A Garage Dayz Nite' in 2001 and 'Beatallica' in 2004. Both albums could be downloaded for free from their website, never released in physical format.

In February 2005, Beatallica was served with a cease-and-desist order from Sony/ATV Publishing, who owns The Beatles catalogue, for wilful copyright infringement. They were being threatened with a lawsuit if they didn't cease all Beatallica activity and pay "an amount to be discussed" in damages. Word got out, lots of articles and blog entries were written about them, over 10,000 people signed an online petition, and soon Lars Ulrich of Metallica contacted the band to offer his support. Ulrich enlisted one of his attorneys to negotiate with Sony on Beatallica's behalf, and as a result Sony chose not to pursue legal action against Beatallica at that time, while maintaining their right to do so in the future.

In July 2007, Beatallica finally released their debut "physical medium" album, "Sgt. Hetfield's Motorbreath Pub Band". It included re-recordings of tracks from their two downloadable albums, as well as several new tracks. This release was done with the approval of Sony and others involved in the previous litigation attempt.