A new Festival by and from Metallica... Orion Music + More

Headlining both nights, Metallica will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 'Black Album' by playing it in its entirety on one night AND all of 'Ride the Lightning' for the first time ever on the other night! This will be the only North American performances of these albums in 2012.

When: June 23 & 24, 2012

Where: Bader Field, Atlantic City NJ
Other performers: Arctic Monkeys, Avenged Sevenfold, Modest Mouse, The Gaslight Anthem, Cage The Elephant, Fucked Up, Best Coast, Hot Snakes, Titus Andronicus, Gary Clark Jr., Lucero, Roky Erickson, The Black Angels, The Sword, A Place to Bury Strangers, Liturgy

We're getting an announcement from Metallica on Tuesday, February 7th at 11 AM Pacific Time. It looks to be regarding the interactive event that was rumored and talked about in late 2011... it also appears to be tied into a Festival of some sort. (It seems way too early for the 3D movie).

Only time will tell... here's the video announcement of the announcement:

With a full slate of European dates already set up, looks like Metallica will hit North American this summer as well.

Hidden Track reports that Metallica will hit Bader Field in Atlantic city during the last weekend in June. Other sources are confirming Metallica hitting Bader Field, but are less specific about date... (SOJO 104.9, Examiner, Atlantic City Weekly, amongst others...)

Also noteworthy, is that Phish is also slated to play a festival at Bader - probably the weekend before Metallica - and frontman Trey Anastasio has been quoted lately talking about covering Master of Puppets.

confirmed dates
5/7/2012 Prague, Czech Republic
5/8/2012 Belgrade, Serbia
5/10/2012 Warsaw, Poland
5/12/2012 Paris, France Stade de France
5/13/2012 Udine, Italy Stadio Friuli
5/23/2012 Oslo, Norway Vallehovin
5/25/2012 Lisbon, Portugal Rock in Rio
5/26/2012 Madrid, Spain Getafe Open Air
5/28/2012 Werchter, Belgium Festivalpark
6/1/2012 Nurnberg, Germany Rock Im Park

Three 30th Anniversary Shows down, three new songs performed and rough studio versions released to Club members: Hate Train, Just a Bullet Away and Hell and Back. A plethora of rare (and not so rare) songs played including the live premieres of Carpe Diem, Baby and To Live is to Die. Guests including Sean & Brian of Diamond Head, Bill Byford of Saxon, John Marshall, Apocalyptica, Marianne Faithful, Ray Haller (Sweet Savage), Kid Rock, John Bush, Lou Reed, Mercyful Fate, Jerry Cantrell, Garry Rossington, Jim Martin, Animal (Anti-Nowhere League), Glenn Danzig and Rob Halford.

Former Metallica member Jason Newsted also sat in each night for two songs per night.

But, is the best yet to come?

Dave Mustaine tweeted this: "I am up in SF for Metallica's 30 anniversary. I look forward to celebrating with them." - will Dave play or fill the slot that's been reserved to remember Cliff Burton? ...original bass player Ron McGovney is said to have been at each night's show, will he make it to the stage tonight? We also hear that Bob Rock, Brian May and members of Black Sabbath might make an appearance tonight for night four.

There have been plethora of rumors floating around of songs that might make their live debuts during this series of shows. Frayed Ends of Sanity, Fixxxer and My Friend of Misery being the most talked about (but, probably just talk)... remember: night #3 had no live debut of any older material.

The first show of four 30th Anniversary Shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco brought a few surprises...

The live debut of Carpe Diem, Baby and the overall debut of Hate Train.

Hate Train is from the Death Magnetic sessions and has also been known as 'Game.' You might recognize parts of it from Mission: Metallica (which chronicled the making of Death Magnetic). MetClub members got a surprise in their e-mail with a free download of the studio version of the song (This is the unpolished version of the song... the original rough mix from March of 2008 in its rawest, untouched form.)

This first Fillmore gig was opened by Apocaplyptica and the Soul Rebel Brass Band. Both bands joined for a big jam on Seek to close the evening... Apocolyptica also joined Metallica onstage to play One (starting with just James/Apocalyptica with the rest of Metallica joining at the end). Other guests including former roadie/fill in John Marshal, Bill Byford of Saxon, Diamond Head... and the return of Jason Newsted!!

Rumors are still flying around on what the remaining three gigs will bring us: Mustaine, McGoveny, Ozzy, Lemmy... more Death Magnetic era songs? Fixxxer? Frayed Ends?

Hot off the presses: Metallica will headline the Download Festival at Donington in 2012 and will play the entire self-titled Black Album in its entirety! Lars announced this on BBC Radio One, where he'll be appearing for the next hour and half or so.

Update from Metallica.com:

Yes boys and girls, it's that time of year again when we attempt to come up with a clever new way to announce that we will be spending part of our summer in Europe playing festivals... you know how we need to have a European fix every summer! And our first announcement brings us to the most hallowed of rock grounds, Donington Park, for our return to the Download Festival. The three day festival runs from June 8-10 and we take the stage right smack in the middle of it on Saturday, June 9, 2012.

This year's European trek has a twist... to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Download Festival, the dudes who run it asked us how we felt about playing 'The Black Album' in its entirety and we thought "hold on, that could be really cool since it is technically the tail-end of the 20th anniversary of the release (August '91)." So come hang with us for the 2012 version of our European Summer Vacation featuring 'The Black Album,' with the exclusive stop in the UK on June 9.

Weekend with camping tickets go on sale at 9:00 am Friday November 18 from www.downloadfestival.co.uk. Vodafone customers may buy tickets 48 hours before they go on general sale at 9:00 am, Wednesday, November 16 at www.vodafone.co.uk/vip. Download RIP ticket packages are available now and do sell-out quickly - click here.

Met Club members should log in for more information about a special pre-sale.