Made for metal

May 19—details

Read more about the artist at mozartgabriel.com and see the "Inamorata" video at youtube.com/@metallica. Metallica is currently on tour to showcase the April release of the album 72 Seasons. The closest the band will get to Santa Fe is Phoenix, Arizona, on September 1 and 3. More details at metallica.com.

Taos Pueblo doesn't appear anywhere in the nearly 12-minute animated video for "Inamorata," the closing track on Metallica's new album 72 Seasons, but it merits a mention in the credits.

Pueblo native Mozart Gabriel and his wife, Helly March, had a chance encounter earlier this year with Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo while seeing Trujillo's son Tye's band OTTTO in Nashville, Tennessee. They traded phone numbers, and March sent him some samples of her work.

Gabriel, a musician himself and a fan of Metallica, mentioned to Trujillo where he'd grown up — unwittingly creating a bond. Trujillo was born in the Los Angeles area and hasn't shared much about his background in interviews, and Gabriel was stunned to learn that Trujillo's family comes from the same pueblo.

"He was like, 'Man, here's the thing. I need you guys for this 11-minute music video. We need to get it done in three weeks, and everybody's kind of telling us no,'" Gabriel says.

Gabriel and March weren't about to say no to an offer to work on a Metallica project. They ended up being part of a crew of 22 people from around the world who created the video, with Gabriel serving as a storyboard artist and a colorist and March as an illustrator and a storyboard artist. The crew met regularly via WhatsApp.

The video shows an Indigenous man enduring a series of struggles in the desert — an empty bottle when he's desperate for water, a cut to his hand, a close encounter with what appears to be a dragon — before walking hand-in-hand toward the horizon with an apparently female companion. Her appearance would seem to coincide with the Italian name of the song, which translates to, "a woman with whom one is in love."

"Our director was so open to hearing about Indigenous culture that we were able to make that lead character a little more Pueblo than Anglo," Gabriel says, referring to director Jess Cope. Other Indigenous imagery in the video includes rock carvings and symbols in the night sky.

The video has cast that imagery under a bright spotlight, garnering more than 900,000 views on Metallica's official YouTube channel in less than three weeks. The channel has 9.7 million subscribers.

At more than 11 minutes, "Inamorata" is Metallica's longest song in a career that dates to 1981. To put the challenge of creating the video in perspective, Gabriel says that with his own music, he feels pride after writing a five-minute song and terror at having to come up with five minutes of video accompaniment. Gabriel fronts a band that bears his full name, creating what he bills as Native American rock.

The "Inamorata" video doesn't appear to tell a story in a linear fashion. For example, an animal decomposes at the beginning, then appears to reconstitute at the end. Gabriel is tight-lipped about the story's hidden meanings.

"There's so many little hidden secrets we're not allowed to tell because we really, really want to leave it to interpretation," he says, "but there's so many Easter eggs that are part of the production part of Metallica." Put another way: The video warrants repeat views.

Gabriel sees natural connections between Pueblo life and heavy metal music, especially the hard-hitting drums. It also was common to hear people playing electric guitar in their rooms at the Pueblo, he says.

Tye Trujillo earned some name recognition last year, when the title track from Metallica's 1986 album Master of Puppets was featured in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things — a nostalgia jolt that sent the song soaring up the charts. Then 17, Tye recorded new parts to make the song to sound "live" in the show.

Robert Trujillo joined Metallica in 2003. He's a likable figure in the documentary Some Kind of Monster, which delves into the band's turmoil following previous bassist Jason Newsted's departure and singer-guitarist James Hetfield's absence for substance-abuse treatment. A grinning Trujillo being informed he's part of the band is a truly joyful moment of the film.

Gabriel describes Trujillo as one of the kindest people he has met.

"He loves the creativity, and that's how a village community is," Gabriel says. "Talking to him feels like you're talking to somebody from the village; it's not intimidating."

Gabriel suspects he knows — and understands — why Trujillo comes across as so peaceful and positive.

"You know, I only can speak for Taos Pueblo, but I'm sure it's similar in other pueblos," he says. "They say, not everything is about you. And when you understand that, you're a lot happier."