Why METALLICA Chose GHOST And BOKASSA As Support Acts For European Tour

Lars Ulrich spoke to Kerrang! magazine about METALLICA's decision to enlist GHOST and BOKASSA to support his band on its European stadium tour this spring and summer.

"To me, Tobias [Forge, GHOST frontman] is a super-cool dude," Lars said. "I really like his energy and being around him. Everybody in our band is a huge fan of GHOST. It seems like the fans of our band love them too. With support bands, we always try to take out people we like to be around and get along with. We’re looking forward to our whole jaunt with them.

"And BOKASSA are incredibly fucking good," he continued. "The songs they write, their whole energy and vibe is such a breath of fresh air. When I heard their music a year ago, they blew my head off. Getting a chance to introduce them to a wider audience is going to be super cool."

METALLICA's European tour will kick off in Lisbon, Portugal, on May 1 and wrap up in Mannheim, Germany, on August 25.

Last year, Ulrich praised BOKASSA, a little-known outfit from Norway, as his "favorite new band."

"These guys are fucking insanely cool," he said. "I heard most of the first record and all the songs are fucking way next level," referencing BOKASSA's album "Divide And Conquer", which was released in 2017.

Ulrich went on to recommend BOKASSA's promotional clip for "No Control", a song from "Divide And Conquer". "There's a super-cool black-and-white video of them sitting in a bar drinking beer," he said. "It's like a one-shot, and all their friends come up behind them and help them sing the song and take their beer from them. I know it doesn't sound like much of a concept, but it works really well, it's really cool."