The Irish Sun are reporting this morning that heavy metal icons Metallica are set to headline Slane next summer. This will apart of the 2019 European leg of their WorldWired tour. Henry Mountcharles announced earlier in the year that the Meath venue would be returning this Summer, and whilst he didn't drop the name of the metal group, he did reveal that the band to play next summer had never played it before.

Metallica were apart of the thrash metal movement which began in the underground clubs of San Francisco and L.A in the early eighties, fusing classic metal inspired by British Bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest with american Punk and Hardcore. They were the forerunners of 'The Big Four' which consisted of fellow thrash metallers Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth. While they garnered a huge following with little airplay throughout the eighties with iconic albums such at 1986's Master Of Puppets, the band hit the singles charts with 1991's Metallica (also known as The Black Album), which took them to unparalleled popularity for a heavy metal band.

Drummer Lars Ulrich did mention that the band hoped to play Ireland in 2019, after plans to possibly play last year fell through due to stage layout issues for their pyrotechnics show. Metallica's European Tour will run from May to August next year, and no doubt this will be one of their key dates, with metal heads all over the country flocking to see one of the most important bands the genre has seen.