Pack up your hemp baskets and herbal healing tents and swap 'em for some New Rock boots and a devil's horns salute: Metallica have been announced to headline Glastonbury Festival 2014. The US heavy metal group are the unexpected and final main act to be announced and will be bringing their bombastic live show to Worthy Farm on the Saturday night alongside Kasabian and Arcade Fire.

Metallica
James Hetfield & Metallica Will Be Bringing Their Explosive Live Show To Glastonbury 2014.

It seems that a welcome wind of change has finally blown across the fields of the Pilton site in Somerset as the Californian rock quartet's imminent arrival is heralded by fans who have been lucky to have picked up a ticket before they all sold out in April. However, there have been concerns over whether the average Glastonbury festivalgoer will be familiar with or even receptive to James Hetfield and co.'s music.

Renowned for their pricey performance fee, the band are more accustomed to the more rock-oriented festivals in the UK like Download, Sonisphere, and Reading/Leeds and will be heading Glastonbury in a year when the bill is otherwise devoid of any other hard rock or metal acts. Organiser Michael Eavis even said in 2002 that he deliberately avoids booking rock bands because of the associated unruly fan behaviour.

Get A Taster Of Metallica's Live Show With 'Master Of Puppets':

"We've avoided that heavy American rock like Offspring because you get crowd-surfing, and all those things that seem to cause problems," he told BBC News at the time. Whilst it's true that the punters will be perhaps expecting the festival's usual fare of folk, alt-rock and synth pop, Metallica are fully prepared to work to win themselves some more fans.

Metallica Press Conference
The Band Are Prepared To Work To Win Over Any Reluctant Glasto-Goers.

Drummer Lars Ulrich says they're ready for the challenge: "Isn't it wonderful, 33 years in, to be able to place yourself in situations where that's even a distinct possibility that you actually have to go and, like you say, win people over?"

In response to the doubt, Ulrich told The Guardian "What I can tell you is that travelling all over the world, playing to people who've never experienced what you do before, what you realise is that people just appreciate music. People don't sit there and break it into genres or categories, or put boundaries around it, or definitions.

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"Right now [my reaction] is one of jubilation and ecstasy and appreciation for being given a chance to be invited to the hallowed grounds of Glastonbury. So I'm not really looking at anything other than, f**k yeah, here we come!" he enthused.

Metallica Ozzfest
The Band Have Said They'll Play A Straight Set Of Hits To End Saturday On A High.

Explaining what their live shows are like, Ulrich said "Ultimately, it's just about making a muddy field and 75,000 people feel as intimate as possible," adding "I like to think we have the right balance between size and projection, [so] it doesn't end up being too...Spinal Tap or whatever. We got more into lasers the last few years. Lasers are a lot of fun.

"But for better or worse, we're coming! And we're pretty fucking excited about it. If anybody has anything to say, then it's a two-fingered salute and take that with ya," the rocker added.

More: Lars Ulrich becomes the face of two Danish beer brands.