Wow.
First off, I get there as early as I could to see MH - was really looking forward to them but it was horrible muddy sound (like someone had put a LPF at 400Hz) as arenas often are, especially for support bands. Just as disappointingly, their set choice was pretty average in my opinion. They played a few of the less good songs from the Blackening (eg Halo, but no Wolves or Aesthetics), and a terrible acoustic-based drawn out song from '...Ashes...'. On the plus side the best songs were Imperium and Davidian which are completely expected. But just that ONE song from BME.
Metallica were outstanding. As tight as they've ever been. James voice was incredible - hit ALL the high stuff and didn't wimp out of anything. Kirk's lead tone was actually really good, and he's obviously been practising - he pretty much nailed his old solos as well as he has ever managed live. The sound was 20 times better than MH (as expected I guess), and the light and stage show was immense. Only disappointing thing was that they only played for about 2 hours. I expected/hoped for about 3 more songs (especially due to the absence of Harvester, Battery and Creeping Death which are all live classics). I would have loved a bit more from Justice... but that's personal preference.
Extremely proud to see them being utterly brilliant and still highly relevant into their mid 40s, they even looked fucking great where recently they've looked a little old and haggard (a bit of hair-dye and a decent haircut does them wonders as gay as that sounds).
Here's the set (broken up into albums rather than the order they played them in:
The End of the Line (7:52)
That Was Just Your Life (7:08)
Broke, Beat And Scarred (6:25)
All Nightmare Long (7:58)
The Day That Never Comes (7:56)
My Apocalypse (5:01)
Of Wolf And Man (4:17)
Enter Sandman (5:31)
Sad But True (5:23)
Nothing Else Matters (6:29)
Die, Die My Darling (2:29)
Turn The Page (6:06)
One (7:24)
Master Of Puppets (8:36)
Fight Fire With Fire (4:45)
For Whom The Bell Tolls (5:10)
Trapped Under Ice (4:04)
Seek And Destroy (6:55)
The black album material, 2 cover songs, One and (surprisingly) the first 3 songs from Death Magnetic were highlights of the set - Metallica definitely seemed the most comfortable playing those. A couple of the thrashier ones were a little sloppy in places, Fight Fire With Fire especially and some of Puppets and My Apocalypse, but other than that their set was very tight.
Undisputed Kings of Metal.
First off, I get there as early as I could to see MH - was really looking forward to them but it was horrible muddy sound (like someone had put a LPF at 400Hz) as arenas often are, especially for support bands. Just as disappointingly, their set choice was pretty average in my opinion. They played a few of the less good songs from the Blackening (eg Halo, but no Wolves or Aesthetics), and a terrible acoustic-based drawn out song from '...Ashes...'. On the plus side the best songs were Imperium and Davidian which are completely expected. But just that ONE song from BME.
Metallica were outstanding. As tight as they've ever been. James voice was incredible - hit ALL the high stuff and didn't wimp out of anything. Kirk's lead tone was actually really good, and he's obviously been practising - he pretty much nailed his old solos as well as he has ever managed live. The sound was 20 times better than MH (as expected I guess), and the light and stage show was immense. Only disappointing thing was that they only played for about 2 hours. I expected/hoped for about 3 more songs (especially due to the absence of Harvester, Battery and Creeping Death which are all live classics). I would have loved a bit more from Justice... but that's personal preference.
Extremely proud to see them being utterly brilliant and still highly relevant into their mid 40s, they even looked fucking great where recently they've looked a little old and haggard (a bit of hair-dye and a decent haircut does them wonders as gay as that sounds).
Here's the set (broken up into albums rather than the order they played them in:
The End of the Line (7:52)
That Was Just Your Life (7:08)
Broke, Beat And Scarred (6:25)
All Nightmare Long (7:58)
The Day That Never Comes (7:56)
My Apocalypse (5:01)
Of Wolf And Man (4:17)
Enter Sandman (5:31)
Sad But True (5:23)
Nothing Else Matters (6:29)
Die, Die My Darling (2:29)
Turn The Page (6:06)
One (7:24)
Master Of Puppets (8:36)
Fight Fire With Fire (4:45)
For Whom The Bell Tolls (5:10)
Trapped Under Ice (4:04)
Seek And Destroy (6:55)
The black album material, 2 cover songs, One and (surprisingly) the first 3 songs from Death Magnetic were highlights of the set - Metallica definitely seemed the most comfortable playing those. A couple of the thrashier ones were a little sloppy in places, Fight Fire With Fire especially and some of Puppets and My Apocalypse, but other than that their set was very tight.
Undisputed Kings of Metal.