The countdown to Metallica has begun
The Worldwired Tour is coming to Finland, where 55,000 fans (about 1% of the country's total population) will be welcoming the heavy metal giants on July 16th in Hämeenlinna. This will be Metallica's twentieth time in Finnish territory.
Metallica is one of the most iconic, recognized and beloved bands in the heavy metal world with a career span of 38 years and counting. Initially a garage band that started as a result of a newspaper ad posted by drummer Lars Ulrich and that singer/guitar player James Hetfield replied to in October of 1981, Metallica would go on to become one of the biggest bands in music history.
After recruiting Ron McGovney as their bass player and Dave Mustaine as lead guitar, the band started playing the LA music scene with almost immediate success. That gave way to their first demo recording 'No Life ’Till Leather' which was overwhelmingly well received. After this, the band replaced McGoney with the late Cliff Burton and relocated to San Francisco where the band was fast becoming a well known name.
In 1983 the band had the opportunity to go to New York to record their first album, but not before some internal drama happening first which resulted in the band firing Dave Mustaine and hiring Kirk Hammett -at the time playing in Exodus- for lead guitar.
Inner conflicts solved, the group went on to record their debut album, the result of which took the metal world by storm becoming an instant classic and one of the fans all time favorites: Kill ‘Em All.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Their twentieth visit to Finland
The following year, on December 14th 1984, Metallica would play in Finland for the first time, in Travashovi, Lieto. Since then, the bay area behemoths have toured this country 19 times total -14 in Helsinki alone-, making the next concert, on July 16th 2019, the 20th visit to the land of a thousand lakes.
This time around the band is coming to Hämeenlinna to play in Kantolan Tapahtumapuisto the hits from their latest album, from 2016, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, on their Worldwired Tour.
The set list, however, if it is consistent with previous shows from this tour, will probably include some of the groups classics, such as Seek and Destroy, Master of Puppets, The Unforgiven, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Nothing Else Matters, Creeping Death and Ride The Lightning, among others.
55.000 fans waiting
The tickets are already sold out and have been for a while, so a full house of about 55 000 people is expected for a show that is anticipated to last anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. For a country with around 5.5 million, this means about 1% of the total population will be enjoying Metallica's concert in Hämeenlinna.
The doors will open at 15:00 the show is scheduled to start at 21:15, with bands Bokassa and Ghost opening up the festivities at 18:45 and 19:45, respectively.
If you are willing to go to the show, the best and easiest way to get to Hämeenlinna from Helsinki is by train.
The train company VR has put on additional schedules for after the show as well but some of them have already sold out too so we recommend buying the round trip tickets in advance. The train trip takes about one hour and 30 minutes and the ticket prices are between 15€ and 17€ if bought this week.
For more information on the venue itself please check the organization’s Facebook page HERE or the band's own website HERE