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Fans may cling to Metallica's influential '80s and early '90s work, but its "World Magnetic" tour at Time Warner Cable Arena Sunday focused greatly on its most recent Rick Rubin-produced return-to-form, "Death Magnetic." That was evident even before the veteran group took the stage as eight huge metal coffins fashioned after "Magnetic's" innovative album cover hung above the rectangular center set stage as part of the light rig.
French metal band Gojira performed a brief opening set as concertgoers filed in. It was the group's last night on the tour and while several fans weren't familiar with them, others stood with their fists raised and heads banging. Richmond, Va.'s Lamb of God, whose latest album "Wrath" topped Billboard's hard rock album charts last spring, was more familiar. Vocalist D. Randall Blythe prowled the stage, slinging his wet hair like a helicopter while growling menacingly. His voice creates a need for a term like "monsterific." Blythe dedicated songs to the troops, his brother and sister-in-law, and NASCAR drivers including Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick, who were seated in the arena's lower section. He also recognized North Carolina's metal scene, singling out Weedeater, Buzzoven and Corrosion of Conformity. Gojira's frontman Joe Duplantier joined Blythe on vocals for "Redneck."
Metallica hit the stage noticeably louder than its openers (although only registering a couple decibels higher on the iPhone's Sound Pressure Level Meter app). "That Was Just Your Life" and "The End of the Line," "Death Magnetic's" first two tracks, opened the set. Performing in the round appeared to give at least everyone on the lower level a great view. Metallica combated the lack of a backdrop or screens with a sophisticated laser light show during "Life." Narrow beams danced off Rob Trujllo's bass guitar strings. It was a trick we could've used more of. The lasers were used sparingly, replaced with those gigantic coffins dropping and tilting above the performers' heads during "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The crowd erupted for the 1984 track and for "The Four Horsemen" (from the 1983 debut "Kill 'Em All"). Flames shot from the stage mimicking a battlezone during the intro to "One." When 16 colorful shooting flames flanked Lars Ulrich's drum kit it was hard not to be a little nervous -- especially for singer James Hetfield, who burned by pyrotechnics on stage in 1992.
The focus on new material continued with "Broken, Beat & Scarred" and "Cyanide." The recent rock 'n' roll hall of famers, all dressed in varying styles of black, reveled in the new songs. Ulrich, pounding glittery orange drums, sat center stage as Hetfield, the band's feel-good spokesperson, alternated between eight evenly placed microphones. Kirk Hammett soloed intricately at each corner, while the charismatic Trujillo, a warmly received replacement now with the band for six years, climbed atop rows of amps.
The band hit on "Sad But True," a cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page," "The Judas Kiss" and the 2008 single "The Day That Never Comes," but it was the eight minute classic "Master of Puppets" that found the frenzied crowd loudly humming along with the bridge/solo at Hetfield's request. Only the finale of "Enter Sandman" and the encore "Seek & Destroy" rivaled it in crowd response. Hetfield ordered the house lights on as they blasted into the latter. Oversized black beach balls fell from the rafters. Fans scrambled to catch the unwieldy souvenirs. Some struggled to deflate them while others banged about in the tiny circle pit at the far end of the stage (where a fight nearly broke out after the final song).
Although some old timers grumbled about the lack of older material (no "Fade to Black"?), most seemed delighted at the length of the two-hour set and the energy and genuine gratitude of the fortysomething members who tossed picks and drumsticks and engaged the audience beneath the shadow of those giant coffins long after the last note faded.
