It is a generally known fact that you can not be a real metal band without having your own customized pinball machine. Right? Right.

So James Hetfield, lead singer of a well-known DRM supporting commercial band with metal tunes went ahead and ordered his own band pinball machine. Obviously sound in this machine is one of the main elements.

Creating a one-of-a-kind pinball experience is a much different beast, but we were able to catch up with Wade Krause and Tanio Klyce, two men who put together a special table for some big pinball fans: Metallica.

“[Singer] James Hetfield saw the Hellacopters game that [artist Dirty Donny] and I made a few years ago and he wanted us to build him a custom game,” Krause told Ars. That was the genesis of the project, but it takes real ingenuity to take an existing machine and modify it so that both the art and the play matches the feel of a band. Here’s how they Krause and Klyce pulled it off.

Ars Technica has the compelte story behind the making of the machine.