Gig review for Metallica at the O2 on March 28th

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Gig review for Metallica at the O2 on March 28th

Anyone at the 02 arena on Saturday to see Metallica play their final dates of their ‘World Magnetic’ tour? Gotta say, its good to see them back and playing a lot of material from the new album. With the St Anger tour it felt that we were just getting all the Metallica classics, but nothing new.

Metallica’s new album ‘Death Magnetic’ receives unfair comparisons to their 1986 classic ‘Master of Puppets.’ This is probably because its the closest album we have to compare it to. Death Magnetic doesn’t have the raw production values of ‘Kill ‘Em All’ or ‘And justice for All’s technicality. ‘That was Just Your Life’ and ‘End of the Line,’ which open up the album feel as if ‘Battery’ and the title track of ‘Master of Puppets’ got an update for 2008/9. The same with instrumental track ‘Suicide and Redemption’ and ‘My Apocalypse’ -you cant shake the feeling that they wanted another ‘Orion’ and ‘Damage Inc’ to stick onto the album. The album surprised a lot of people who were ready to to write it off- myself included.

After main support Machine Head built the crowd up into a frenzy, its up to Metallica to deliver, and they don’t disappoint. Starting with the opening two tracks from the new album and don’t let up the pace by playing 3 tracks from the much loved ‘And Justice for All’. Perhaps aware that its Justice’s 20th anniversary? I was just happy to get the epic ‘One’, ‘Harvester of Sorrow’ and all nine minutes of the albums title track.

The surprise of the evening came from the album ‘Ride the Lightning’ in the song ‘Fight Fire with Fire’, which rarely gets an outing. The trip to London was instantly made worthwhile. Metallica played a total of six tracks from the new album and they were clearly relishing the chance to play the new material. With Lars bouncing around on the kit with added ‘oomph’ and Hetfield having the energy of a 20 year old, running to all four mics onstage at any given time. A much called for encore sees them cover Motorhead’s ‘Overkill’ and ‘Kill ‘Em All’ favorites ‘Hit the lights’ and ‘Seek and destroy’.

I last saw them at Download 2006 when they played all of the Master of Puppets album, an amazing set which I didn’t think they would ever top. I was wrong and glad of it. Metallica proved with Death Magnetic they could still write fast aggressive music, and tonight proved (to me anyway) they can still deliver a set full of surprises and fist pounding metal.

Just a shame about the trains then huh? Thinking about holding a riverside event near the O2 or want to keep up with London events?

Congratulations to Metallica for being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!