By: Kevin Lee

On the internet, there are thousands of bands and music artists that an action-packed game like Fortnite could choose to collaborate with. Out of all of those options, Fortnite has chosen heavy metal legand Metallica.

Fortnite’s Chapter 5 Season 4 is coming out on the 16th of August, 2024, and with new content comes new songs. And with the new songs comes talented bands.

Fortnite’s action packed gameplay of shooting, dodging, and building all at once gives off a mood of intensity like no other game has. Intensity pairs very well with rock and metal music. That’s where Metallica comes in.

Metallica is a heavy metal band of musicians who all paired up to form the band in 1981. They rose to fame in the early 90s with their fifth album, The Black Album. They were known for creating and using a new music genre: speed metal.

So a 3rd person action shooter game pairing up with a speed/heavy metal band sounds like an amazing team, but there’s one more question: Why is Epic Games pairing up with a 43-year-old band? Especially when metal bands such as Black Gold started in 2006, wouldn’t newer bands appeal more to the biggest target audience, Gen Z?

The truth is that older bands like Metallica bring massive amounts of nostalgia, something Gen Z is obsessed with. Gen Z is always searching for ways of comfort, something that older songs that came before them give a lot of. According to Futura Tech Labs, “Listening to and loving the ’90s has got to do with their(Gen Z) search for comfort, and escapism and for a time when life was less stressful and more carefree.”

Bringing Metallica to Fortnite might actually appeal to more people, instead of pushing them away.