“You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

For the millions of you that have been fans of Metallica for decades, and who see the band as the epitome of what heavy metal music really means, you probably never imagined a day when they would be joined by Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for a rendition of one of their most famous, iconic, and revered songs, performed entirely with classroom instruments.

But that’s just what the guys did on The Tonight Show, when “Enter Sandman” became the latest unlikely song to get a little kid-style performance. As usual with this segment, it had no business being nearly as good and as fun as it was, but it still felt weird to think that we now live in a world where Metallica promotes their new album (Hardwired…To Self Destruct, their 10th studio album, available tomorrow on Friday, November 18th) by going on a show like Fallon’s Tonight Show and making one of their greatest heavy metal tracks all cute and cuddly.

But when you’ve been around as long as they have (their first album Kill ‘Em All was released over 30 years ago, in 1983!), you don’t have to prove yourself anymore and can have fun.

So yeah, we know for some of you this performance is an unthinkable one, but you are still getting a new album tomorrow, and we’re more than positive it won’t have any tracks featuring classroom instruments.

What Metallica song would have sounded best if played with classroom instruments? Tell us in the comments below.

Image: NBC