.jpg)
After their 2003 show cancellation, Metallica make it up to fans with two memorable shows
By Pablo Krause
Herald staff
Ten years have passed since the last time Metallica had last set foot on Argentine soil. Ten long years where, in between, thousands of fans had the bitter disappointment of the last-minute cancellation of their South American tour in 2003. However, Metallica aimed to make it up to their fans with two shows at River Plate stadium on last Thursday and Friday — the first of which sold out.
And what a comeback it was. With the band's latest record Death Magnetic taking the group back to their thrash metal roots — something long-awaited, if not demanded by their fans — the World Magnetic tour had focused in their old-school classics, playing little or nothing from their most questioned albums of the 1990s. In other words, anything a Metallica fan would have wanted.
Therefore, the blood of almost 60,000 people seemed to boil as the lights went down in River and The Ecstasy of Gold — the instrumental piece of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly soundtrack by Ennio Morricone which Metallica currently uses as their opener — started to sound on the speakers of the Monumental, only to be abruptly interrupted by the crunching riff of Creeping Death, one of Metallica's biggest classic from their 1984 album Ride The Lightning.
It was the moment thousands of fans had been waiting for over a decade. A massive release of anxiety, frustration and joy translated into hundreds of head-banging heads, thousands of fists in the air and throats that seemed to scream their lungs out.
It seems hard to believe that the four musicians on stage — singer and guitarist James Hetfield, Danish drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammet and bass player Robert Trujillo — will be pushing 50 in a few years (all of them were born between 1962 and 1964). All four continue to deliver an energetic performance and the band proves to be one of the tightest and most powerful acts in the business.
It is true that Hetfield's vocals have became cleaner over the years in comparison to that furious 20-year-old that recorded Kill 'Em All in 1983 almost tearing off his vocal chords, but his singing continues to make blood run cold as he intonates long running classics such as For Whom The Bell Tolls or Ride The Lightning with a deeper and more obscure approach.
Besides, Hetfield is probably one of the most hypnotising frontmen, his sole presence makes it almost impossible to take the eyes off him as he stands in front of the microphone opening his legs and bending his knees in which has already became his trademark pose.
Still, he is not the only one. Ulrich isn’t a static drummer and he is permanently jumping off his drum kit, standing up and screaming at the audience as he plays, acting as the perfect counterweight for Hetfield's hypnotising presence along with Trujillo's constant monkey-moves as he moves through the stage.
Despite the almost 30 years that had passed since its foundation, Metallica probes they still have a lot to offer. Both of the shows at River Plate were equally memorable, as the band modifies its setlist every night, making each show different from one another.
Of course, “mandatory songs” were part of both concerts. Fire and explosions gave way to the epic war story in One while the whole stadium punched their fist in the air to scream “Master! Master!” on Master of Puppets and fireworks lit up the stadium as the whole crowd sang the chorus of Enter Sandman, probably the band’s most well-known song ever.
However, several songs gave each concert its own identity. On Thursday, where the setlist cleared concentrated on the band's biggest hits, Wherever I May Roam and Harvester of Sorrow were part of the unexpected classics while the furious Blackened seemed to be a nod to the die-hard fans.
On the other hand, Friday's show featured some of the old-school fan favourites that Metallica seemed to have excluded from their concerts during the 90s as “Ride The Lightning, Fuel — with 12-metres-tall flames and endless pyrotechnics on the stage — and the epic The Four Horsemen made the first half-hour of the show almost relentless.
Only four songs from Death Magnetic were played at each concert, on both occasions with the classic Sad But True bringing some fresh air in between.
“We know we broke your hearts when we had to cancel our tour in 2003 but we are here to heal that wound,” Hetfield said at both concerts, in the usual rockstar speech that hardly anybody believes nowadays but everybody expects to hear. “Our hearts are back together,” he added near the end of the show.
But despite the “rockstar demagogy” — at least he didn't go for the Argentine soccer jersey! — it is fair to agree with Hetfield's statement. Not because of his words, but because of Metallica's performance. If they had to make it up to their fans for anything, the two concerts in River surely did. Especially with the energetic performances following the encore break which included fast-tempo classics Whiplash (on Thursday) and Fight Fire With Fire (on Friday) before closing the night with the song demanded by the entire audience.
Hetfield hands his guitar to the stage assistant and grabs the microphone with his hands. “I have three words for you: Seek and Destroy!,” says the iconic frontman before getting off the stage and climbing to the fence to sing their classic piece from Kill 'Em All — which they failed to play in 1999 — among the public. Despite the 10-year wait, what else could we ask for? We got what we wished for, and probably even more.
Rock ‘til you drop. Metallica was founded in Los Angeles in October 1981 by James Hetfield (vocals/guitar) and Lars Ulrich after they both answered an ad in a music magazine looking for musicians aiming to form a heavy metal band. They were later joined by guitar player Dave Mustaine (who later formed Megadeth) and bassist Ron McGoveny (later replaced by Cliff Burton, who died in a road accident in Sweden in 1986).
Almost 30 years later, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and its self-titled album from 1991 (also known as The Black Album which was certified as 15 times platinium in the United States last November).
However, Ulrich himself has stated the live performances and the style played by Metallica demand an enormous physical effort.
Asked by the Herald at a press conference before the show about how many years do they think they will be able to keep playing, Ulrich said:
“That’s the great question, the only one who may answer that question is Don (the band’s chiropractic). I think that spiritually, creatively and mentally this band will go on for another hundred years but the physical aspect of it will be the main question, we will have to see how long our bodies will hold up.
“I don’t want to know,” Hetfield added. “I think touring keeps us in shape and we look at other bands like the Rolling Stones or Lemmy (Kilmister) from Motorhead who are older than us and have been doing this forever,” he said. “Even with our level of intensity and energetic performances, I can see that in Angus Young from AC/DC so as long as those guys are around we will try to catch up with them.”
Link: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/PrintedEdition/View/23473
