METALLICA To Play Israel In May

According to Haaretz, METALLICA will perform at Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 22, the event's promoter confirmed Saturday.

This will be METALLICA's third visit to the country; they appeared at the Amphi Park in Rishon Letzion in 1999 and Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park six years earlier.

At the end of January, METALLICA was presented with a gold plaque signifying Brazilian sales in excess of 45,000 copies of the band's 2008 album, "Death Magnetic". The band also received a platinum award recognizing sales in Brazil of more than 60,000 copies of the group's "Orgullo, Pasión Y Gloria - Tres Noches En La Ciudad De México" (Pride, Passion And Glory Three Nights In Mexico City) DVD — which was recorded on June 4, 6 and 7 of last year at Foro Sol in Mexico City. The award presentation was held in the afternoon of January 30, just hours before the band's performance at the Morumbi stadium in São Paulo.

A policeman was injured and 120 people arrested when rioting broke out outside METALLICA's January 26, 2010 concert in Santiago, Chile, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune. Authorities said that most of the arrests were made when hundreds of fans who did not have tickets attempted to force their way into the Club Hipico horse-racing grounds to see the show, which was attended by a crowd of more than 50,000. Police colonel Miguel Angel Castro said, "A group of people tried to enter without tickets and Carabineros (militarized police) had to act, launching water."

Charges against those arrested included disorderly conduct, drug possession and drinking in public.

The gig was the sixth on METALLICA's South American trek, which began on January 19 with the band's first-ever appearance in Lima, Peru. The crowd of 55,000 at that show was the biggest for a musical event in Peruvian history.

The group wrapped the first leg of the jaunt at the end of January in Brazil, resuming in early March with stops in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama and Colombia.