METALLICA Plays 'The Most Unique Show' In Antarctica: First Photos Posted Online

The first photos of METALLICA performing earlier today (Sunday, December 8) in Antarctica can be seen at the group's official Facebook page. The one-of-a-kind show was sponsored by Coca-Cola Zero and fans from several Latin and South American countries had a chance to enter a contest and win the opportunity to join the band on the expedition.

A posting on the METALLICA Facebook page reads: "This was the most unique show METALLICA has ever done. The band, contest winners, research station scientists (from Russia, South Korea, China, Poland, Chile, Brazil and Germany),and the ship crew, all crammed in this little dome out on the helipad of Carlini Station in Antarctica! The energy in the little dome was amazing! Words cannot describe how happy everyone was."

METALLICA's setlist was as follows:

01. Creeping Death
02. For Whom The Bell Tolls
03. Sad But True
04. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
05. Master Of Puppets
06. One
07. Blackened
08. Nothing Else Matters
09. Enter Sandman
10. Seek & Destroy

Speaking to Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone last month, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett said: "We are playing Antarctica; it's pretty wacky. It's crazy, because I don't deal with cold very well, so I have my reservations. But it should be pretty cool, because we've played the North Pole before — we've played Tuktoyaktuk [in 1995]— so we have to play the South Pole. Tuktoyaktuk was fine; it wasn't as cold as it sounded. But I have a feeling that the Antarctica is a lot colder than the North Pole. And it should be an interesting experience."

Fans from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico were able to enter the contest, which started on October 28 and ended on November 22.

METALLICA said in a statement: "After over 30 years as a band, we have been unbelievably fortunate to visit just about every corner of the earth . . . except for one. That is all about to change as we are set travel to Antarctica, the only continent that METALLICA has never played on until now!! We are partnering with Coca-Cola Zero for one of the most unique and special concert events in our career as we'll be performing near the heliport of the Argentine Antarctic Base Carlini on Sunday, December 8, 2013."

The winners left on December 3 in a cruise from the port of Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, on a 10-day journey to Antarctica.

While on their trip, the winners got to view the landscapes of the continent, participate in lectures to be provided by specialists, see audio-visual material on the work of the scientists and receive environmental information.

The concert took place under a dome at the Carlini Argentine Base was heard by the fans through headphones, with no other amplifiers or sound system. The gig was also live-streamed in the participating countries.

Photos courtesy of METALLICA's official Facebook page