A team of European scientists has named a newly discovered deep-sea crustacean after Metallica, the band announced on Instagram Thursday.
The group shared an artists’ rendering of the gnarly looking little creature, now officially known by the delightful mouthful-of-a-name “Macrostylis metallicola.” “We’ve played on all seven continents, made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and now… we’re a crustacean!” the band cracked in the caption.
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Dr. Torben Riehl of the Senckenberg natural history museum in Frankfurt, Germany, and Dr. Bart De Smet of Ghent University in Belgium discovered the Macrostylis metallicola deep in the northern Pacific Ocean. Metallica said that Riehl selected the name because he was a life-long Metallica fan, but they also noted that the creature — jokingly referred to as “The Thing That Should Not Be” — does share some similarities with the group.
“The worm-like creature dwells in complete darkness, has no eyes, and is colorless,” Metallica said. “Talk about Blackened! It also lives amongst metallic nodules containing cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel and rare-earth elements. So it basically lives in a rock stadium? Now that’s one metal crustacean!”
In his own statement, Riehl said: “The powerful music of Metallica has accompanied me the majority of my life. Songs such as ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘One’ are outstanding masterpieces in rock history and I am thrilled to be able to give something back to the band by naming a new species after them!”
Metallica recently canceled appearances at two summer festivals, Sonic Temple and Louder Than Life, while James Hetfield continues to seek mental health treatment following a relapse last fall. The band still has additional shows scheduled for this year, including a South American tour in April and sets at Welcome to Rockville (May 8th and 9th) and Aftershock (October 9th and 11th).
