Games that are based around music have been a thing for quite some time already. We have Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker," 50 Cent's "Bulletproof," "Brutal Legend," which features numerous rock n' roll artists, and of course "Guitar Hero." What we didn't know is that there was a game based on the band Metallica (way back then prior to "Guitar Hero: Metallica") but it never saw the light of day.
There were some concept art and a trailer about the Metallica game called "Damage Inc.," (which is also the name of one their hit singles) but the people PtoPOnline (via Kotaku) was able to revive an extended gameplay trailer, giving more details about the game.
"Damage Inc." was supposed to be something similar to the "Twisted Metal" and "Vigilante 8" games in terms of vehicular combat and such. It was also similar to the "Mad Max" series due to the game being set in a post-apocalyptic world. Other inspirations involve "Fist of the North Star," "Blade Runner," "Waterworld" and many more were the bases on team's inspiration for the game.
As shown in a gameplay demo that has surface thanks to PtoPOnline, the video footage is from an early and incomplete PS2 version of the game. It was reportedly going to be ported to the Xbox and PC platforms as well.
Other features of "Damage Inc." featured the vehicles of the game having two weapons and being highly customizable as well. Players can also shift from vehicle to vehicle, as well as NPCs. The game also features a day and night cycle. According to the video, there have been attempts to revive the game for the PSP but it never pushed through.
On the site of Loudwire, some concept art about the game has been shown, most specifically those of James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Lars Ulrich.
PtoPOnline is preservation site for video games (especially old and almost forgotten ones); it's a good thing a team is actually having cause to make games truly matter.
Here's the prototype gameplay: