Aside from a possible (but unlikely) apology from the Recording Academy, hopefully, this is the last time we mention what went wrong at the Grammys until next year. The technical difficulties Metallica ran into while performing “Moth Into Flame” were pretty inescusable. Everyone seemed as  baffled as we were, and after seeing a recent video post on Romanian Metallica fan club Roload’s facebook page, there still appears to be some confusion. TMZ reported that the issue came from a stagehand who accidentally unplugged James Hetfield’s microphone. However, the Romanian site states “Web feed was fine. Only the TV broadcast had problems for some reason.”

Given how angry James Hetfield looked, Lady Gaga sharing her microphone, and the supposed stagehand confessing his/her mistake, it still strikes us as weird. We don’t want to get conspiratorial, but this could be expertly-spliced audio from one of Metallica’s other live performances of the song. Either way, it sounds better and more complete than the Grammy version.

Regardless, here is the performance with James Hetfield’s microphone turned on: