Metallica To Appear In Saudi Arabia For The First Time

Metallica (Instagram @metallica)

JAKARTA - Metallica will hold its first concert in Saudi Arabia next month.

The heavy metal giant will be the headline for the opening night of the Soundstorm festival which will last for three days in Riyadh on December 14.

Other artists scheduled to appear at the event include Pharrell Williams, Chris Brown, HER, Black Eyes Peas, J Balvin and Anne-Marie, as well as DJ Tiesto and David Guetta.

More than 600,000 people were reported to have attended last year's Soundstorm.

Soundstorm, hosted by the music giant Saudi MDLBEAST, has attracted several of the largest artists in the region and the world to Riyadh since its launch in 2019.

The festival site has an area of more than five and a half million square meters with a garden life area for street food outlets and artists that keep festival visitors entertained on the sidelines of the set in what is referred to as the "most crowded week in Riyadh".

"We haven't finished entering 2023, because an incredible opportunity has just come to us to perform at a big festival that we've never attended in a part of the world that we rarely visit," Metallica said in an official statement on Instagram.

We are excited to announce that on Thursday, December 14th we will be the first hard rock band to ever play at the Soundstorm Festival @MDLBeast in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia."

"The festival tickets and one day are now available on mdlbeast.com."

Metallica made her Central East live debut in 2011 at Etihad Park, Abu Dhabi. They played in the same place two years later.

"When we were here a year and a half ago, it was amazing. Now, I don't say it's all over the place, but there are so many different nationalities amazing energy and shared experience," before Metallica appeared in Abu Dhabi in 2013, drummer Lars Ulrich told The National.

"When we started playing, there were so many regions in the world where the types of music we performed were not accepted. There are many places where people don't know what we're playing or don't have enough infrastructure to support a band like us. But now it's getting more open. The world is changing and the world is shrinking. It's nice to be on the front lines."