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? Its good to see Metallica playing almost all of the new album, as the St anger tour was just them playing the classic songs, with nothing new.
Metallica’s new album ‘Death magnetic’ receives unfair comparisons to their 1986 classic ‘Master of puppets’, probably because its the closest album we have to compare it to. Death magnetic doesnt have the simplicity of the ‘Black’ album, yet the technicality of ‘And justice for all’. ‘That was just your life’ and ‘end of the line, which open up the album feel as if ‘Battery’ and title track ‘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 alot of people who were ready to to write it off- myself included.
After main support Machine head build the crowd up into a frenzy, its up to Metallica to deliver, and they dont disapoint. Starting with the opening two tracks from the new album and dont let up the pace by playing 3 tracks from the much loved ‘And justice for all’. A tribute to ‘Justice for all’ reaching the 20 year mark? I was just grateful for all nine minutes of the album’s title track, epic fan favourite ‘one’ and the brilliant ‘Harvester of sorrow’.
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 is 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 seems them cover Motorhead’s ‘Overkill’ and ‘Kill ‘em all’ favourites ‘Hit the lights’ and ‘Seek and destroy’.
After seeing them play all of ‘master of puppets’ at Download 2006 i vowed not to see them again because I didnt htink they could top that acheivement. Im glad to admit i wass very, very wrong. Metallica delivered a brutal, energetic set of metal after showing that they can still write a great metal record, they’ve demonstrated to all of us there that they can still play it to.
If only the trains had been working that night -Id say this was a great gig -would others who were there agree? Thinking about holding a riverside event near the O2 or want to keep up with London events?
Tags: London events, Riverside events