Could these festival teasers be related to Metallica's countdown?

ABC/Randy HolmesCould the mystery of Metallica‘s countdown be solved?

After the metal legends launched a new website, MetallicaXX.com, over the weekend featuring an unexplained countdown clock, a number of rock festivals, including Sonic Temple, Aftershock, Welcome to Rockville and Louder than Life, all shared social media posts claiming that something will be happening this Thursday, October 10 at noon PT.

Given that XX is the Roman numeral for 20, the initial speculation about the countdown was that it might involve the 20th anniversary of Metallica’s 1999 live album, S&M. With these new festival teasers, however, the thought is that the XX could refer to the 20 in 2020, as in next year.

Additionally, online sleuths on Reddit have uncovered code on the MetallicaXX.com website that links back to Danny Wimmer Presents, the producer behind all of the aforementioned festivals.

However, there’s one thing keeping this from being a slam dunk case closed: the times don’t exactly match. The festival countdown teases an announcement Thursday at noon Pacific Time, while the MetallicaXX.com countdown hits zero Thursday at noon Eastern Time.

There’s also the matter of frontman James Hetfield, who last month returned to rehab to treat his ongoing battle with addiction. Some fans are skeptical that Metallica would announce tour dates with their lead singer currently seeking treatment.

The only way to find out for sure is to tune in on Thursday.