Metallica kicked off this year’s M72 World Tour in Athens on Saturday, setting a new attendance record at the OAKA stadium in the process. Over 90,000 fans from Greece and across the globe flocked to the venue to see the iconic heavy metal band play for the first time in almost 16 years.
While the band’s shows are usually spread out over a two-day No Repeat Weekend, Greek fans were treated to a single 16-song set that featured most thrash classics. In the middle of the set, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo surprised Greek fans by performing riffs from Zorba’s Dance, the iconic composition by celebrated Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, and of You Don’t Fit Anywhere (“Den Horas Pouthena”) by the legendary Greek rock band Trypes.
Unbeknownst to most, the Geodynamic Institute of the National Observatory of Athens was also eagerly awaiting the return of Metallica to Greece.
As the band opened up with their classic Creeping Death, the Institute was hard at work gathering data from its seismographs on the micro-tremors, known as concert quakes, created from the collective energy of thousands of delirious fans moving in unison.
Metallica Concert Quake / Image Credit: ERT News
While this data is used to research how kinetic energy from concert-goers is transferred back into the surrounding earth, Greek seismologists may now be called upon to use hard science to determine which is the most earth-shattering band in the history of metal.
Is it Metallica, or can Iron Maiden trigger even higher magnitude tremors when they kick off their Run for your Lives World Tour on May 23rd, at the same Greek venue.
Cover Image Credit: Metallica
