Fans from all over Odisha were left disappointed after the American heavy metal band Metallica cancelled their headlining performance at this year’s Cuttack Open Air (COA) festival.

Band’s vocalist James Hetfield confessed that the psychological pressure of performing in front of an extremely demanding Odia crowd was one of the major reasons why Metallica decided to opt out of the show.

It did not matter in the end, however, as Metallica could not have performed even if they wanted to because drummer Lars Ulrich has gone on a hunger strike to protest against JICA’s nightmarish conduct on the streets of Cuttack.

Odisha Gazette are the official media partners of COA and we caught up with Ulrich in the Ranihat area where he has been protesting for days.

“I did not eat for 15 days in protest against China’s brutality in Tibet. So this is nothing new for me. I’m prepared to give my life away for Cuttack if I have to,” he said.

Cuttack Open Air organisers have roped in the next best thing to replace Metallica as the new headline act by signing the prominent 90s weddings singer Altaf Raja. News of this change in line-up has not gone down well with music lovers however.

“Imagine booking tickets to mosh on ‘Enter Sandman’ or ‘Creeping Death’ but some has-been tw*t starts singing ‘Tum To Thehre Pardesi’ on stage,” said Rishav Kapoor, a 22-year-old from Mumbai studying at KIIT university.

“It’s bullsh*t, I want my refund.”

Metallica’s untimely opting out sees a major reshuffle in the line-up. Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold who were supposed to open for the metal heavyweights have been replaced by Abhijeet and Babul Supriyo. COA organisers have categorically refused to refund any tickets much to the dismay of youngsters up and down the state.

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