The University of South Carolina’s marching band won first place in this year's For Whom The Band Tolls competition, according to Metallica's website.
It was announced Jan. 30 that the band will receive $50,000, as well as record the "Campus Clash," its theme song, and a Metallica song for next year's EA SPORTS College Football video game. According to the university's website, EA SPORTS will send a recording team to USC to capture the performances this spring, and the recordings will be released on Spotify.
Metallica is a Los Angeles-formed, San Francisco-based heavy metal band, consisting of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo. The band put out 11 studio albums such as "Master of Puppets" and their self-titled album. According to the band’s website, Metallica launched the competition, which challenges high school and college marching bands to record the most exciting, unique and impressive performances, in 2023.
The Carolina Band's entry was a recording of the performance during the halftime show at the Carolina vs. Oklahoma football game Oct. 18. The band performed the songs "Master of Puppets" and "Lux Aeterna" by Metallica and "Enter Sandman" by USC School of Music graduate assistant Ben Pouncey.
Fourth-year music education and performance student Chad Hall has been playing tuba for the band since his freshman year.
Hall also said the band was dedicated to making sure the show was great. Hall admitted that when they’re working on something weeks upon weeks, it may become boring at some point.
“But my peers, the directors and all the support staff never got tired of that show,” Hall said. “Some people actually were still playing…some of the parts because, I mean, they’re so catchy. It’s Metallica!
Hall said most people in the band did not know that they were performing those songs for the competition.
"We just thought, 'Oh, we're working on it because it's Metallica,'" Hall said. "So, for us, it wasn't just about winning. It's about a product and a good product, a product that we want to be proud of and a product that our community would be proud of."
Associate director of bands Jay Jacobs sent a video message congratulating the members on winning the competition, Hall said, and it played during the band's banquet.
Third-year biomedical engineering and theatre student Maggie Davisson has been playing trumpet for the band since her freshman year. She is also a trumpet section leader in the band.
Davisson said she did not know what the Metallica competition was before this year. She said she also enjoys Metallica and the performance aspect of the Carolina Band.
"I feel that combining those two things, especially on such a broad scale and wide reach that Metallica has, is really cool," Davisson said. "And then getting to kind of represent the university with that and obviously playing for the EA SPORTS video game is a very exciting opportunity."
First-year music education student Houston Johnston, who has played trumpet for the Carolina Band for about a year, said that a lot of people buy the college football game every year.
"Anytime someone opens that game, they're going to hear the University of South Carolina. That's just crazy to me," Johnston said.
Hall also said he watched other college marching bands perform and he's proud of everyone who decided to audition for the performance.
"I'm proud of the product that I, my peers, our directors and our support staff have put together, and it's been a dream come true," Hall said.
He also said that some of the members heard the audio before, but that was his first time hearing it.
Johnston said he saw the initial announcement of the winners, but hearing Jacobs congratulating the band at the banquet felt a little more special.
"It kind of didn't feel real. It still doesn't feel real to me," Johnston said. "That big of a group calling out us for doing a good job. It's crazy to me."
"When you're in the band, it just feels like something you do that's fun, and you go, 'Oh, you know, we're a marching band,'" Davisson said. "But you kind of forget all the outside things that come with it and all the ways that it impacts people and ... Metallica liked us, so that was pretty cool."