Metallica: Fireworks And A Wall Of Sound

----------------------------------------------------------------- Music review

Metallica at KeyArena, last night. -----------------------------------------------------------------

By the fifth song the air was so thick with the smell of pyromania and the noise level so high from the chanting crowd that KeyArena resembled a Ridley Scott post-apocalyptic nightmare.

Metallica, at the hard-earned height of a 13-year career, knows how to put on quite an extravaganza. Playing in the round, across two stages linked by roller-coastering ramps that also led down to the ringside crowd, the quartet ran and roused, never letting up for a minute, lest anyone forget what they were here for.

Bringing things down in tempo only, guitarist Kirk Hammett led into "One." the song that, in the late '80s, took Metallica from a popular heavy metal band to MTV video stars. With the sound pushed way too high, it was never going to be a perfect rendition of one of Metallica's more gentle moments but that wasn't the point. That was not what the packed-out arena cared about.

They wanted singer and guitarist James Hetfield to heckle them, they wanted bassist Jason Newsted to grimace and frown at them, they wanted Hammett to do those trademark quaint widdly-diddly solos, and they wanted to see drummer Lars Ulrich fist the air and count in the beat in true heavy metal drama.

It did not really matter what beat either. Metallica could have played do re mi and the place would still have erupted with resounding approval.

Despite all the glitz of the stunning stage set with its intermittent flame-throwing and explosions, the songs really were what it was about. When the waltzing melody of "Nothing Else Matters" turned into the epic introduction of older song "For Whom the Bell Tolls," nothing else did matter. That monumental, consuming thug thug thug reminded everyone precisely why Metallica still matters in the '90s. Metallica was a scuzzy thrash band with integrity set against the spandex-wearing big-hair bands of the day that seemed to have very little.

"Seek and Destroy" saw a thunderous exchange between Hetfield and the crowd as each took up the traditional call and response.

Veteran cover, "Green Hell" was speedy and slick and later, "Master of Puppets" pure brilliance. A murky-sounding "Enter Sandman" ended in amateur dramatic melodrama, as a mock disaster, complete with a roadie falling around the stage on fire and another falling from the lighting rig, confused and bemused. It was kind of silly and also kind of sick as the crowd did what it probably would do if the disaster had been real: Cheer blindly!

After the band was done play-acting, the final encore was typical of Metallica. No big finale with a couple of hit singles but a charge through some old stuff. Thus, the show ended with a turgid and muddy "Am I Evil?" and a bashed out "Battery." But it's OK. It's Metallica, you know?