This past week’s Laggin Out Live stream had some of the usual technical tongue-in-cheek chaos. Streamlabs tantrums, mixer surgery, and the crew threatening to burn down half the internet just to stay live. (Very much understood, gentlemen). However, buried between the OBS troubleshooting and the Xbox industry speculation was one of the best if not strangest entertainment headlines of the year.

William Shatner is releasing a heavy metal album.

Yes, folks. The man who treated the Prime Directive as a mere suggestion rather than a hard rule is stepping into metal at 94 years…young? So, should we really be surprised? Most people at that age are just trying to find where they last left their glasses or keeping their thermostats at a sweltering 80 degrees and still freezing. Shatner decided the correct move in his retirement was to collaborate with some pretty big-name musicians (Zakk Wylde, Henry Rollins, Ritchie Blackmore, Chris Poland) and going full heavy metal.

But Shatner isn’t the first legendary actor to wander into metal territory.

Back in 2013, it was Christopher Lee. Count Dooku. Saruman. Dracula. The man had the voice of a cathedral organ and recorded multiple metal projects into his 90s, including the album Charlemagne: The Omens of Death. Lee went full symphonic metal, and the album not only charted on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock chart but was taken seriously by the metal community.

Since Shatner tends to live somewhere between performance art and parody, that begs the question: Will this be another novelty record, or will it land somewhere closer to Christopher Lee’s legitimate metal career? But, at 94, the sheer act of releasing a metal album is pretty impressive.

For the Laggin Out crew, it was the perfect kind of bizarre pop-culture tangent: equal parts hilarious, weirdly admirable, and exactly the sort of headline that makes you pause and say, duh, of course this exists!

Other Topics Covered This Live:

• Microsoft Gaming Leadership Shakeup
• Next-Gen Console Speculation
• BAFTA Controversy
• Gary Chalk Health Update