This Day in 2013: Metallica Enter the Guinness Book of World Records

Seven years ago today, Metallica added a brand new record to their discography...except this wasn’t an LP, it was a world record: by playing a show in Antarctica on December 8, 2013, they officially became the first band ever to play on seven continents.

You can read all the details about it on the Guinness World Records website, but we’ll give you a quick synopsis here nonetheless. Over the course of the calendar year, Metallica had already performed in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia, but to wrap up the year in a big way, they held a competition in which winners would be able to bear witness to a performance by the band within a transparent dome at Carlini Station in Antarctica.

The hour-long show was dubbed “Freeze ‘Em All,” which should give any Metallica fan worth their salt a good chuckle, and the band played ten tracks over the course of those 60 minutes, including hits like “Enter Sandman,” “Nothing Else Matters,” and “One.”

Head on over to the Guinness World Records page, and you can get all the specifics about how the band was able to perform such a unique gig, and you can even watch a performance of “For Whom the Bell” tolls while you’re there!