Big Four Tour - Thrash Metal Bands Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax

The Big Four announced their dates via their own website for the event. Get Big Four tickets here. With one date having been played in the USA, everyone is anticipating and hoping for more US tour dates for 2011 and beyond! The date for the sole US show was April 23, 2011, in the warm desert sands of Coachella, California. This was on the same grounds as the other Coachella Festival held one week prior featuring bands like The Strokes and Cage the Elephant. The show received excellent reviews from concert goers. Now the only question that remains to be answered... when are the rest of the dates? Lars Ulrich has recently stated that more shows are on the way in the USA, with hopes of an east coast show, and possibly a couple more, however, no full-fledged cross country tour.

Also announced is the Yankee Stadium Big 4 concert date set to happen on September 14, 2011. Be sure to get your tickets before this soon to be legendary show sells out. This is the perfect time of year to see a concert, so you might as well stay the night in New York City if you can and make a trip out of it.

Big Four UK Sonicsphere Festival 2011 tickets are available here (provided they aren't sold out).

Will there be more Big Four tour dates announced?

Hopefully yes. The information will be posted here as soon as we have new tour dates! See above to learn about the Yankee Stadium gig in 2011 featuring these four bands! As of September 2011, no new dates have been announced.

The Big Four tour for 2010 has concluded and was a huge success for the band. There was no drama, no missed shows, and no technical difficulties. If you're looking to see these four bands play together again, you're out of luck for now. However, Megadeth and Slayer are touring together on the "American Carnage" tour throughout America this year. Joining them also on some dates will be Testament, and Anthrax in late 2010. Dates have also been announced for 2011 in Europe. See below for more details on the American Carnage and European Carnage tours.

Will the bands play together again in the future? Several music news outlets have reported statements from Lars Ulrich, Dave Mustaine, Kirk Hammett, and Kerry King all unanimously saying they'd like to tour again in the future. Now the only question is, when? Will we see a 2011 Big Four Tour in the summer? So far, there's one single date in Coachella announced. In the meantime, keep reading for information on the American Carnage Tour, featuring three of the four "Big Four" bands. The future is looking bright for these four bands to tour in 2012 (the wait is killing us, we know).

It was announced Megadeth and Slayer will team up to play a string of dates in March through April in 2011 in Europe, in between Megadeth recording their 2011 album, TH1RT3EN. Here are the dates and places where these concerts will take place:

March
13 Kiev, Ukraine Expo
15 Moscow, Russia Olimpiski
16 St Petersburg, Russia Jubileeny
17 Helsinki, Finland Ice Hall
19 Stockholm, Sweden Arenan
20 Oslo, Norway Sentrum Scene
21 Aarhus, Denmark SCC
23 Brussels, Belgium Forest
24 Bamberg, Germany Stechert Arena
26 Paris, France Zenith
28 Madrid, Spain La Riviera
29 La Coruna, Spain Coliseum
30 Lisbon, Portugal Pavilhao Atlantico

April
1 Barcelona, Spain St Jordi Club
3 Rome, Italy Atlantico
4 Padova, Italy Gran Teatro
6 Zagreb, Croatia Arena
7 Vienna, Austria Gasometer
8 Budapest, Hungary Arena
10 Prague, Czech Republic O2 Arena
11 Lodz, Poland Sportshall
13 Basel, Switzerland St Jakobshalle

Not since the 1991 Clash of the Titans tour have these three bands shared an American stage - Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. The American Carnage Tour, also dubbed the JÄGERMEISTER MUSIC TOUR, has been running throughout 2010. In late 2010, the tour will include Anthrax. Megadeth has been performing its classic thrash masterpiece, Rust in Peace, live on tour. Slayer has been playing its 1990 release Seasons of the Abyss. These two albums are celebrating a 20th anniversary release, with the albums played in completion. If you're a fan of the Big Four, then this is right up your alley.

Past dates 2010:
September
24 Dallas, TX Superpages.com Amph
25 San Antonio, TX AT&T Cente
26 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater
28 New Orleans, LA Lakefront Arena
30 Knoxville, TN Knoxville Civic Coliseum

October
1 Duluth, GA The Arena at Gwinnett Center
2 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
3 Miami, FL Bayfront Park Amphitheater
5 Hampton, VA Hampton Coliseum
6 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena
8 Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
9 Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
10 Columbus, OH- Lifestyle Communities Pavilion
12 Louisville, KY- Broadbent Arena
14 Ft Wayne, IN - War Memorial Coliseum
15 Grand Rapids, MI - DeltaPlex
16 Milwaukee, WI - Eagles Ballroom
19 Salt Lake City, UT - E Center
20 Las Vegas, NV - The Pearl
21 Hollywood, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre

There have been no announcements of any type that this tour will continue. In fact, the opposite has been stated by Kerry King of Slayer, who said the coordinating the four headlining acts on one stage was so hard to do, it's doubtful it will ever happen again.

Let's hope not.

In the meantime, Metallica makes plans for recording their new album, which guitarist Kirk Hammet has said to be more in the vein of the Black Album, but heavier (in contrast to 2011's panned collaboration with Lou Reed, Lulu).

Slayer is co-headlining Mayhem Festival with Slipknot in 2012, and recording a new album.

Megadeth released their acclaimed album Th1rt3en in November, 2011, and continue to tour in 2012 with Rob Zombie and Mustaine's own tour, Gigantour.

Anthrax released their most positively received album in years, Worship Music, in 2011. The band will also headline the side stage at Mayhem Festival in 2012.