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But there, in that moment, face to face, when you concentrate to appreciate the four musicians, James, Lars, Kirk, and Robert, is when the pulsating, vibrant, dense, and spiritually complete adrenaline explodes in your veins, head, and neck, from feeling part of a whole and proud to be a headbanger, old or new.”
By Allan Lima
The Metallica is sorely missed. But they've rediscovered the joy of what they do, and if we didn't have Metallica anymore – if it had ended in that tragic accident on the Master Of Puppets tour that culminated in the death of bassist Cliff Burton, for example – it would be much worse.
We won't discuss these brief reasons about the "post-Master" or even post-Black Album career, but rather about its importance: Metallica, throughout its history, deserves to be seen live, and as such, must be subject to the adversities and evolutions of time, from changes in musical direction to technology itself, the era of illegal downloads being a prime example… however, even being aware of these and other various misfortunes, true or not, the band remains unscathed, imposing, as it has been in most of its shows, truly masterful in manipulating (pardon the pun) the masses of fans, new or old, who leave one of their shows duly ecstatic and thinking: "all these years in doubt, questioning whether it would be worth it or not, and these guys didn't disappoint me live…why didn't I see them before???" Why???
Let's look at the 6 reasons, but mainly because it's live that the band does what it does best: entertain and make even the most skeptical person discover that on stage, it's a unique experience. They are:
- A very well-crafted setlist: for a band with such a long career, it's certainly difficult to please everyone, but Metallica always reworks them, and almost always, especially in recent shows, they've managed to play great classics mixed with songs from all albums and "phases" (written here intentionally, as some readers may not consider it a phase, but something worse... or better!)
- Show production: the show unfolds like a movie script, the solos, the playbacks that precede songs, pyrotechnics… Metallica pioneered all of this in the 80s, and they do it very well now;
- Musicians' performance: all of them, without exception, play for the audience, and if something goes wrong, they play again…this happened with James Hetfield during the song “Fade to Black” at Rock in Rio 2011, for example. Professionalism and respect, which make them truly giants;
- Metallica's place in the global music scene as a whole: the band has always recognized its magnitude and combined it with a carefully crafted exposure, reaching all media, especially around the time of album releases, even those with long intervals between them, or tour announcements;
- Dedication to the fans, whom he calls "family": yes, some felt "betrayed," one might say, by some songs or even entire albums, but no one can deny that Metallica has always respected its fans as a band that for decades was a reference in the world entertainment and music scene, and has always remembered them in its great shows, interacting, giving its best and drawing out the best from its audience as well, in terms of emotion;
- That's precisely the emotion: seeing Metallica live is an experience that brings back memories of the beginning of a generation, of when you listened to rock or heavy metal, of the nostalgia for the years when they reigned supreme, and of the anticipation of where they can go next. But there, in that moment, face to face, when you concentrate to appreciate the four musicians, James, Lars, Kirk, and Robert, is when the pulsating, vibrant, dense, and spiritually complete adrenaline explodes in your veins, head, and neck, the feeling of being part of a whole, and proud to be a headbanger, old or new. You really don't need anything else.
*This text was written by a Wikimate and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site's authors.
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