My sincerest apologies for taking ever so long to have the review for this concert to fire through The Forge. Thankfully unlike most metal shows in Edmonton, there was some excellent coverage done on the event by our cities mainstream publications.
For those, choose your Poison below:
EDMONTON SUN
EDMONTON JOURNAL
Well, the "Death Magnet" had its attraction on overdrive on sunday the 7th, as fans of every conceivable shape and size came together and packed Rexall to the roof.
Fans only began to trickle into the main venue by the time the first of two openers, The Sword, took the stage with such song essentials of theirs as "Barael's Blade" and the Guitar Hero fave "Freya". Although they had a great set, for most of the mainstream Metallica fans there, it seemed like an odd fit to them. These are also the same people who deny the existence of previous Metallica albums "Load" "Re-Load" and musical group hug "St. Anger".
If The Sword threw them off their game, they hadn't seen anything yet...
Next to take the center stage of Rexall, were Richmond Virginia's Lamb of God, the five member metal machine with the misleading name. They've been called leaders of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, and with their performance that night, its clear to see why, with gut wrenching songs like "Laid to Rest" "Redneck" and the always popular "Walk with me in Hell". In addition to their usual faire, the savage throated, head slammin', five piece gave us a taste of their upcoming album Wrath with their song "Dead Seeds" as well as sending a shout out to our military as a lead into "Now You've Got Something to Die For". With all this intensity on stage, I was incredibly surprised to see the relatively inactive crowd on the floor save two very unimpressive moshpits. Perhaps the crowd was preparing for the onslaught to come.
Anticipation and energy grew as the lights went down and the Rexall crowd became a sea of glittering lights, like stars constructed of cellphone displays and lighters. After what seemed like an eternity bathed in darkness, the long awaited kraken that is Metallica came from the darkness below to take the stage, dwarfed by the four monolithic casket shaped lighting rigs that dangle above their stage. (photo shown at the top)
Opening their set with "That Was Just Your Life" amidst a dazzling laser light display from the complex lighting apparatus that flowed throughout their almost now signature central stage setup. The band it seemed, had finally tapped into that youthful energy they seemed to lose long ago as their set continued, executing such staples as "Creeping Death", "Battery", and "Of Wolf and Man" with expert precision.
As excellent as the older songs were, for me, I wanted to hear the songs from their latest work and the force behind their tour, Death Magnetic. Sometimes a song performed live can be like the pretty girl at the end of the bar late into the night, great at first, but upon closer observation, not nearly what you were expecting. Three seconds into "Broken, Beat, and Scarred" I knew for sure that this "girl" was hot. The new stuff blended well with the old, keeping the universal theme for the night, laughing in the face of death and personal struggle. With alchohol, career wide lineup changes and the loss of Cliff Burton years ago, this band knows all too well what price can be paid in life and in death.
An element of theatre was prevalent as the band continued, songs like "One" among others had plumes of fire erupt from the stage, the heat so intense that I could feel it in the front row beyond the floor. One could only imagine how hot it got for James Hetfield and his merry men, with these eruptions going off mere feet from them. Beyond the great spires of fire, rows of coloured flame shot up from raised platforms at appropriately choreographed times. Besides the fire and lasers, the caskets that seemed to hang precariously above them, could actually move and change position almost walling up the band at certain points, bathing them with light effects.
The band ended their evening with the deployment of what can only be described as black, logo emblazened, beach balls of varying size. Adding an element of impish fun, to an otherwise traditional heavy metal experience.
All in all, eventhough, the tone of the evening and of Death Magnetic, was the macabre and the dead. One could not help but be brought back to life, empowered by a thrash metal band that had fairly humble beginnings in their native California, just a bunch of kids, trading cassettes (you remember those, right?) of heavy metal from across the world (a pre-Napster music sharing network, irony anyone?). Young kids who now, have kids of their own, but no matter the age, no matter the strife and trouble that life throws at them, Metallica will continue to inspire generations to come, ensuring that metal, particularily the subgenre they co-founded, thrash will live on.
Missed the concert and want to know what songs played that night?
Here's the SET LIST from our show here in Edmonton.
(TRY ONE, THEY'RE INTERACTIVE!)
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Creeping Death
Of Wolf And Man
One
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
The Unforgiven
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
~ENCORE~
Last Caress(Misfits Cover)
Die, Die My Darling(Misfits Cover)
Seek and Destroy
Related Reading from The Forge
DEATH MAGNETIC CD REVIEW
No comments:
Post a Comment