Metallica review 2009 NJ

“Take a look to the sky just before you die… it’s the last time you will!” The stage lights went black, and the entire sold out Prudential Center arena in Newark, NJ plunged into darkness. Four seconds later the lights came blazing back on with the ear-blasting crunch of Metallica’s heaviest guitar chords, and the crowd roared with delight. It was the second of three local Metallica concerts, and the fans were loving every minute of it.

Two hours earlier, the arena was barely a quarter full, and a band called The Sword was churning out sludgy, crunchy riffs, and shouting incomprehensibly. The Sword is Lars Ulrich’s favorite up-and-coming band, and that earned them the incomparable honor of opening up for the world’s biggest heavy metal band. Their music has been described as ‘Black Sabbath meets Metallica,’ and the analogy seemed fairly accurate. The songs were heavy yet grooving, and the band plays with a unique sound that is likely to take them far. All they’re missing is a master vocalist who can take the songs to the next level, by providing some melody and range to the music.

Next up was Machinehead, a band which seems doomed to be a perennial opening act. Riding on the success of their highly acclaimed 2007 album The Blackening, in the past two years Machinehead has opened for acts as big as Megadeth, Slipknot, and the Dio-led Heaven & Hell. The group’s machine gun riffing, heavy as hell power chords, and uncompromising attitude has earned them much acclaim from members of Metallica, and a key spot on this leg of their tour. Singer and guitarist Robb Flynn screamed and yelled mightily, railing against oppression and injustice, and yet would smoothly transition to harmoniously and beautifully sung interludes, inevitably followed by a drum-driven march back into crushingly heavy choruses. Machinehead’s heavy yet intricate riffs and socially conscious lyrics make them a natural successor to Metallica’s thrash metal legend, and it seems as if they are just a power ballad away from mainstream success.

But few of the almost 20,000 fans packing the newly built Prudential center were wearing Machinehead or The Sword t-shirts. Instead, thousands of fans wearing Metallica t-shirts spanning a 25 year career filled the spacious and gleaming arena, excitedly discussing potential setlists and surprises for the night. Many of the attendees had been to Thursday night’s show at Nassau Coliseum (see the review here) as well, and were looking forward to hearing favorite songs that did not make the setlist in Long Island.

Those fans were in luck. The lights darkened minutes after 9:00 pm, and The Ecstasy of Gold, the haunting theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, boomed out over the PA system. James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Rob Trujillo took to the stage wordlessly, and let their instruments do their talking. The band ripped into That Was Just Your Life, one of six new songs off 2008’s Death Magnetic that would be played over the course of the night. A dazzling laser show was intricately synced up to the song’s nonstop beats and abrupt time shifts, and the tune was immediately followed by another new song, The End of the Line.



Metallica then treated fans to Ride the Lightening, the title track of their hit 1985 record, and a true old school thrash favorite, written from the perspective of a death row inmate about to be electrocuted. Never ones to lose their momentum, the band followed up with some of the best and heaviest songs in their 100+ tune catalog, such as One, For Whom The Bell Tolls, and Sad But True, accompanied by flames, explosions, and giant steel coffins which swung, rotated, and practically cavorted above the stage. Interspersed with the fans favorites were the four additional new songs from Death Magnetic, which may lack the flashiness and grandeur of the classic hits, but still received enthusiastic responses, especially the chart topping single The Day That Never Comes. Proving, as if they needed to, that Metallica is still a force to be reckoned with, the group busted out an ultra-rare rendition of the almost ten minute epic And Justice For All, a long, meandering song which boasts some of the most complex riffs the group has ever produced, making the spectacular performance of their masterpiece Master of Puppets seem almost easy by comparison.

After spending almost two hours playing the heaviest and fastest songs from the band’s first four albums, Metallica finally allowed the tempo to slow, and saluted the songs that made them into a household name. Power ballad Nothing Else Matters was sung poignantly by James, as he allowed raw, deep throated passion to slowly creep into his voice with each additional verse. And the entire arena cheered and sang along to mega-hit Enter Sandman, the heavy yet catchy song that first put Metallica into heavy MTV and radio rotation.

Following a brief rest, James and his bandmates returned for a three song encore, featuring a cover of the song Blitzkreig, Kill ‘Em All shredder Hit the Lights, and the always popular Seek and Destroy. As the arena full of fans sang, yelled, and screamed the song’s three word chorus, giant black beach balls cascaded from the rafters, bouncing throughout the stage and the mosh pit. Both James and Lars got tripped up by wayward beach balls in the final minutes of the song, with James getting knocked to his knees, and then angrily kicking every ball in sight off into the crowd, much to the delight of the audience as well as the stage crew. Look for videos to show up soon on Youtube.

As thousands of boisterous fans filed out the doors of the Prudential Center, a sense of satisfaction hung thick in the air. Some attendees had just seen Metallica for the first time, others had seen them two, three, or even twenty times before. But everyone, from middle school children escorted by parents to graying men born before the term heavy metal was even coined, seemed to be in agreement: Metallica still does, and always has, kicked f*cking ass.