Is METALLICA About To Announce Several 2020 U.S. Festival Appearances?

Several festivals from promoter Danny Wimmer Presents, including Louder Than Life, Aftershock, Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple Music + Arts have tweeted out "hack" posts which appear to tease an announcement that will be made this coming Thursday, October 10 at 12:00 p.m. PT.

The post reads: "The page you are trying to access is no longer under admin control. We've waited long enough. We've taken matters into our own hands. We will get what we want. It's simple. You have until 10/10 12PT to give us what we want or we leak server access credentials. You have 3 days."

It also features a video with some distorted art and a computerized voice reading the same message.

The four festivals' web sites also link to a countdown clock that is scheduled to hit zero at the same time as the Metallicaxx.com web site launched by METALLICA on Sunday. This appear to be more than just mere coincidence, because METALLICA fans on Redditdug around the code for the Metallicaxx.com web site and noted that a portion hidden from public view had some sort of connection to Danny Wimmer Presents.

Could METALLICA be preparing to announce several U.S. festival appearances in 2020? That certainly seems to be the case.

Back in 2016, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich said that the band was hoping to bring back its Orion Music + More festival during the tour cycle for its latest album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct".

His comments came a year after METALLICA frontman James Hetfield said that the band "lost millions" of dollars by staging Orion, making it highly unlikely the band would get involved in such a project ever again.

The June 2013 Orion event at Belle Isle in Detroit drew at least 40,000 people over the course of two days to see METALLICA, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, DEFTONES, SILVERSUN PICKUPS, RISE AGAINST and more.

The band moved the event to Detroit after holding the inaugural edition in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 2012.

Asked if METALLICA would think about making the festival more metal-centric and less diverse than in the past, Ulrich answered: "The one thing that we talked about doing would maybe be to do something that was a little smaller an do something that was more… I think the word… What was the word that came up? Hmm… Like a boutique, where it's more full-on METALLICA. Maybe it's just METALLICA and some stuff, like museum stuff, and just maybe making it only METALLICA for a whole weekend, but making it smaller. We haven't really dialed it yet, but we're looking at all the different options."

Hetfield told METALLICA's fan club magazine, So What!, that he was "so glad" that the band staged Orion, explaining: "Those two we did were fun. We got some bands out there in front of people, our fans mainly, and that was the whole idea. If it would have broken even, we'd still be doing it, but we lost millions both times. We can't do that."

Asked why he thought Orion didn't work, Hetfield told So What!: "Maybe it was too adventurous, bill-wise. I think it was too wide. If it was more of a metal fest, or really hard, maybe? What we were going for was 'edge.' Every band that was there had some kind of edge. And it didn't matter what genre they were in. I won't say every band, but that's the vibe we were going for. Maybe it needed to be a little more secular."

He continued: "How do festivals get big? I don't know. If it's billed as the hippie festival, do all the hippies come? If it's billed as the death metal fest, do all the death metal people come?"

"And who knows? Maybe it was us attaching our name. It's, like, 'Ah, it's their festival. I don't want to go.' I have no idea! Are we putting too much importance on our name? If we opened up the METALLICA hamburger stand over there, would more people come or fewer people come because they like us or don't like us? Are their opinions influenced by our moniker on there?"

Last month, METALLICA postponed its previously announced tour of Australia and New Zealand so that Hetfield can enter rehab for alcohol addiction.