METALLICA Announces Dates In Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia

METALLICA has posted the following message on its official web site:

"Enough already with this announcing one show at a time B.S. . . . we've got four more to tell you about!

"First up, is Oslo, Norway on July 10th. Last time we were there is it was winter (Dec. '03). . . We're psyched to be playing outside in the summer, actually our first outside gig ever in Norway.

"We haven't been to Stockholm, Sweden in way tooooooo long . . . so it's very cool that we'll be back on July 12th to play at Stockholm Stadion for the second time. See how these things work ... 'cause the next show is in . . . Helsinki, Finland, July 15th, our eighth visit to Helsinki and again our second time at the Olympic Stadium. Yeah, there are a couple of days off in there . . . what to do, what to do?

"Last tidbit from tonight's update . . . a city we have only played once before, and site of one of the best and most intense shows in 'TALLICA history . . . Moscow on July 18th, this time at the Lushniki Stadium.

"They're all METALLICA shows, with of course a few cool opening bands that we'll let you in on as soon as all the details are sorted.

"We have a few more shows in the works, so we'll get back to you soon as they're confirmed . . . keep watching here."

METALLICA "Sick of the Studio '07 Tour" dates so far:

Jul. 01 - Werchter, BEL @ Rock Werchter Festival
Jul. 03 - Athens, GRE @ Rockwave Festival
Jul. 05 - Vienna, AUT @ Rotundenplatz
Jul. 10 - Oslo, NOR @ Valle Hovin Stadion
Jul. 12 - Stockholm, SWE @ Stadion
Jul. 15 - Helsinki, FIN @ Olympic Stadium
Jul. 18 - Moscow, RUS @ Lushniki Stadium

METALLICA producer Rick Rubin told MTV.com last week that he wants the band to make a "defining" album when they enter the studio next month. Rubin admitted he was "really nervous" about working with the group after seeing the candid 2005 documentary about their near-breakup, "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster", but said that the band is now the opposite of how they appeared in the film. Rubin said, "They're really productive, really communicative — it seems like they really like being in the room together. It's a great process. They say they're more excited than they have been in a long time about making music...I asked them not to reinvent themselves so much as to make a defining album, like the purest of what METALLICA is."

Drummer Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone magazine that Rubin wants to make the band sound like "the METALLICA that made them METALLICA without going backward."

METALLICA hopes to release its ninth studio effort by the end of the year.

(Thanks: Drake)