UTEP and Metallica tease tour stop in El Paso: “Monday”

Heavy metal legends Metallica are expected to announce a 2018 North American tour on Monday and a teaser video posted on the UTEP Don Haskins Center Facebook page indicates the band will perform at the university’s arena.

Tour dates leaked online show the band’s only Texas dates are in El Paso and Lubbock. Those dates have not been officially confirmed by the band.

Friday, Metallica’s social media accounts posted a video with the word “Monday,” including the classic Metallica “M.” Over the weekend, arenas across the US, including the Don Haskins Center, started showing the same teaser clip.

Metallica is wrapping up an arena tour in Europe. In 2017, it launched a stadium tour in the United States, which included three performances in Texas: Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Reliant Stadium in Houston, and the Alamodome in San Antonio.

The iconic rock band is currently touring in support of its tenth studio album: “Hardwired to Self-Destruct.” The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard album chart in November 2016 and has since been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales in excess two million copies in the US.

Metallica, whose last six albums have debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, according to the RIAA. Its magnum opus, a self-titled album popularly known as the “The Black Album,” has been recognized as the best selling album of the “soundscan era” when the record industry began tracking album sales with bar codes.

The album launched five hit singles, including the rock radio classics “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven.”

Metallica last performed at UTEP in the early 90s and in Las Cruces in the late 90s.