The Boerne High School Mighty Greyhound Band and Color Guard brought the head-banging metal to their fall marching routine, taking up the challenge to enter heavy metal band Metallica’s “For Whom The Bell Tolls” marching competition.
Make that, WINNING in Metallica’s marching competition, after the performance video Boerne submitted was selected to be among the best, from a field of more than 450 entries. As a result, Boerne band director Daniel Person’s squad will receive a $15,000 prize to go toward musical equipment after being chosen as a winner in the competition’s Medium High School division, finishing in a tie for first with a high school from Malverne, New York.
Person said they entered the competition in June or July, after seeing the competition featured on Facebook. But the Boerne band video was not recorded until November.
“We recorded November 14,” Person said. “The kids only had the music for two weeks, and only had one day to learn the music and drill. So, what you hear on the YouTube video is all one take.”
Boerne High School Mighty Greyhounds Band members play during a recent event. The band submitted an entry in a rock band’s online contest and won, receiving $15,000 in band equipment as a result. Courtesy photo
The video was filmed, however, in several takes, including close-ups and drone images. Assistant band director Alec Miranda “spent eight straight hours synchronizing the video to the music,” Person said.
Person said he was not given any advanced knowledge of Boerne being selected as a winner.
“We were just as surprised as anybody else,” he said.
The Boerne band produced a four-minute clip featuring portions of five Metallica songs: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Enter Sandman, Fade to Black, Seek and Destroy, and Master of Puppets.
“Back in April, we launched a competition where we challenged college and high school bands from all across the country to incorporate Metallica songs into their shows,” Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo said. “The response blew us away, with over 450 schools answering the call.
“Competition was fierce, with amazing performances by marching bands of every size,” Trujillo said as the winners were announced January 7 on ESPN’s “Championship Drive: Countdown to Kickoff” telecast.
The 450-plus high school and college entries were submitted by a mid-November deadline and were then narrowed down to five finalists by professional judges, furnished by Conn-Selmer.
The videos then went to Metallica members -- guitarist- vocalist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, and bassist Trujillo -- who viewed the finalists and selected the winners themselves.
Voting in a “Fan Favorite” competition ran through December 31 on the competition’s website. The Fan Favorite accolade went to Auburn University in the collegiate level, and to Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tennessee, in the high school division.
Bands that entered were given access to a library of marching band charts for Metallica songs, provided by Hal Leonard via sheetmusicdirect. com.
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