Metallica at Twickenham **** - Vast display of power and intimacy

*Originally published on 21 June 2019

When my friend bailed on me - and I was left seeing Metallica on my own - I was apprehensive as I’ve always ‘gigged’ with mates, to share the experience with someone. While I stood in the enormity of Twickenham Stadium, I was on the one hand alone - but also with thousands of people, all connecting with the band we love.

Metallica’s catalogue is huge, I don’t know how they pick what to play. One of the charms of seeing them, is surprise. After opening with Hardwired, the title track of their newest album, they swung violently back in time; firstly with ‘The Memory Remains’, a crowd-pleasing stadium anthem, before launching into Ride the Lightning. As the band rips into the mid-section riff of the song, Kirk Hammett starts shredding the solo, and people around me, none of whom I knew, began crashing into each other. Energy was up, and fans’ appetites wet.

After Harvester of Sorrow, which had a particular bass-y groove, they toned it down. James Hetfield brought on his acoustic, as they played The Unforgiven, perfectly bridging heavier and lighter material, as dusk began to draw in.

While Metallica roared into the first half-an-hour -they entered a bit of a mid-concert lull, with some new material, Moth into the Flame and Here Comes Revenge. There were some folded arms, phone-checking and refreshment top-ups, before the head-banging great, Sad But True, was followed by a lesser-known track, Clover, and Frantic from St. Anger.

The unnecessary, and frankly boring, bass solo and doodle with Kirk Hammett continued to frustrate; but Metallica is Metallica.

They can afford to mix things up in a two-and-a-half-hour set, when they can finish off with some of the greatest hits in the history of metal.

The brutal final hour started with Master of Puppets, played with a certain speed and aggression, as the moshers threw themselves around.

The huge screens projected artwork interspersed with Metallica’s performance. I was surrounded by Metallica fans, screaming their lungs out. We didn’t know each other, but it didn’t matter.

Two more classics helped banish the boredom of the mid-gig lull, with For Whom The Bell Tolls and Creeping Death, tantalising the crowd into the final stretch of stadium hits. The chanting of ‘DIE DIE DIE’ during Creeping Death was deafening, as darkness set on Twickenham.

Metallica’s epic light and laser show continued, as they launched into Seek and Destroy, often a gig-closer, before a rather tame performance of little known Lord of the Summer. Even Hetfield joked: ‘I don’t even know what album that’s from’.

At this point I turned around to see stadium lit up with people’s phone lights - as they play the intimate stadium ballad, Nothing Else Matters, as a precursor to Metallica’s flagship finisher: Enter Sandman

I’ve seen them at festivals and in arenas, and it’s always a balancing act between playing new & old material and satisfying the different fans they have.

At Twickenham they appealed to the 13-year-old boy who just heard Enter Sandman for the first time, and the seasoned rocker, who has more patches on his jacket than there is jacket itself.

They had lasers and lights, fireworks and flamethrowers, while bringing out the old-time thrash classics to make sure Twickenham was moshing.

Through brute power, deft touch and an awesome visual display - they made sure everyone on the Metallica spectrum went away satisfied - including this loner.