Live Performance Review: Metallica At Glastonbury

...OK, this is going to be something a bit different.

I actually was originally going to comment on the controversy of having Metallica as a headliner for Glastonbury, but, erm...I found the final result was a bit too much of an angry rant (even compared to some of my angrier articles!), so I opted to delete the final result. For a period of time, I was actually going to let Metallica's time at Glastonbury be passed by without comment (and unwatched, since I'm not a big fan of watching live events).

Then a friend of mine admitted on Facebook to having a new found respect for Metallica after seeing their headlining performance (bear in mind, he's usually the kind of guy who makes comments about Lars' drumming and Kirk's guitar playing) and I noticed that even blabbermouth.net, usually one of the first places to rip Metallica to shreds, was making positive comments about Metallica's show.

And I thought to myself "...OK, maybe I should give it a watch." Thank goodness for BBC iPlayer!

So, what did I think of it? Well, let's start with the setlist:

• Creeping Death
• For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Wherever I May Roam
• Sad But True
• Fade To Black
• Cyanide
• The Unforgiven
• The Memory Remains
• One
• Master Of Puppets
• Nothing Else Matters
• Enter Sandman
• Whiskey In The Jar
• Seek & Destroy

So, that's five songs from Metallica, three from Ride The Lightning and one each from Kill 'Em All, Master Of Puppets, ...And Justice For All, Reload, Death Magnetic and (technically) Garage Inc. Not a bad variety of tracks, if you ask me! Honestly, that's a much better setlist than I was expecting from them: I would have thought that they would have used the opportunity to play a lot of stuff from Load and Reload and dialled back the thrash a bit. That said, it doesn't seem a huge amount different from their usual sets, from what I've heard, so a little bit more of a shake up in the setlist would have been a cool idea. Some people might complain about the absence of some of their faster songs like, say, "Battery" and "Hit The Lights", but I can't really fault them too much for that, as Glastonbury isn't exactly a festival where these faster numbers are likely to have gone over especially well (plus, opening with "Creeping Death" more than made up for that, if you ask me!). I personally feel that a few tracks were missing which would have been cool for the band to play live: I would have like to have seen them play "Hero Of The Day", "King Nothing" or "Until It Sleeps" from Load (although, granted, I do really like those tracks) and I find the absence of "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" to be a bit of a shame. That said, the presence of so much stuff from both Ride The Lightning and Metallica is certainly pretty cool, as they're Metallica's best (in my opinion: I know a lot of people prefer Master Of Puppets, but I find Ride The Lightning to be a bit better than it) album and their most famous album and both have had some heavy focus over the last few years, so it's understandable that so much stuff from both was included and I don't have any real complaints to make about on that front! The absence of new track "The Lords Of Summer" is kind of an odd move when you consider that it's been played at most Metallica gigs for the past few months, but I guess the band figured it wouldn't be worth playing the song at Glastonbury due to the album it's meant to be on not being done recording yet, which is fine with me: I've not bothered to listen to the track myself, so the absence of it didn't bother me anyway! If I could have had control over the setlist (as hypocritical as it is for me to say this, considering one of my earlier comments about them maybe wanting to shake up the setlist a bit more compared to usual), I would have probably had the band swap out "Wherever I May Roam" for one of the tracks from Load which I mentioned and encourage them to also add "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", as it's otherwise a pretty well balanced set (and doesn't include anything from St. Anger and Lulu, which is always a plus in my book!). Credit to the guys there, it's a really nicely handled setlist overall!

But the greatest setlist in the world doesn't mean anything if the performances are terrible. And that really is the big question: how does Metallica do with that setlist live at Glastonbury?

Well...really well, actually! I've never seen Metallica live before now, so I didn't know what I was expecting and, well, I'm glad I was in the house on my own when I watched it, as I spent most of the set singing along quite happily (and loudly...my apologies to the neighbours!) and just generally being rather impressed. Considering I've heard A LOT of negative comments about Metallica as a live act (and Lars and Kirk live in particular: James and Rob tend to avoid any noticeable criticism, as far as I've seen...), I was rather impressed with how well they did! Let me break it down as much as I can. As a note in advance, if I don't say anything about something, it's because I felt it was up to what Metallica did on the album version of the song and, because I don't feel like spending hours covering everything, I've opted to not cover it to avoid going "This was fine" multiple times.

James Hetfield

James' voice sounded pretty good throughout the set. I feel he was struggling a bit near the end of the verses for "Wherever I May Roam", which struck me as somewhat odd due to it being so early in the set that I was noticing him start to struggle, but I feel that such a complaint would be unfair, as live environments are very different from studio environments. "Sad But True" was also a bit patchy at points, but not to the extent that I found it distracting. "Cyanide" was a bit iffy in the quiet section, but it wasn't necessarily bad: I just didn't think it was the best it could have been, as James seemed to drop his voice to be a bit too quiet and seemed slightly caught out by it. I felt a bit disappointed that James didn't sing the higher range vocals on "The Unforgiven" in the chorus, but I'll admit that it's more just because I really like that higher range bit than any complaint about how he sung it live: he still did it justice in a more comfortable range for him. Not sure his lower range in "One" was the best it could have been, but he still did fine throughout the song and he had been singing for nearly an hour by that point, so it's understandable that his voice wouldn't be quite as good as it was when he started and he more than made up for it with just how powerful his additions to the song compared to the record version of the song were: you actually could feel the emotion in his voice at those points and it just made the song into possibly the best version of the song I've heard to date. Which, admittedly, isn't saying much due to how little I keep up to date with Metallica in general these days, but it's still impressive. I also have to admit that I gave an involuntary yell of "yeah!" when he sung "Scanning the scene in Glastonbury tonight" at the start of "Seek And Destroy": that was a really cool touch!

His guitar playing in general was, for the most part, as good as on the record, so there's not really a lot to say there. Huge credit to the guy, it's got to be tough to have played guitar as long as he has and still be just as good as you were over three decades ago!

As a frontman, James struck me as surprisingly down to earth in his interactions with the crowd. If you'd not told me Metallica were a big band and been big for over two decades (let's pretend for a second that I hadn't heard of Metallica), I'd have thought that he was the frontman for a bar band that had recently got big due to his friendliness on stage and general enthusiasm when interacting with the audience. You can also tell that he's still passionate about music now, which is really cool! One review I read of the band's performance on the live DVD they did with the rest of the Big 4 (Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) described him as like everyone's favourite uncle and, while I wouldn't QUITE go that far, it's fair to say that he strikes me as the kind of guy who you would really like to hang around with on a regular basis. There's no way around saying this, so I'll bite the bullet: he's just cool (God, how I hate having to use that word in that way...)! I liked his short speech between "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad But True" about how it was about time that hard rock and heavy metal started to get represented at Glastonbury since everything else was already there (although I think the choice of dedicating "Sad But True" to the fans who have waited for a metal band to play Glastonbury and the British metal bands who dream of being on a stage at Glastonbury was an odd one: it's not exactly a song that seems to suit such a dedication, when you know the lyrics to it!), as he raises a fair point, but I doubt it's going to change much beyond MAYBE getting Deep Purple, Iron Maiden or (if they're still going by this time next year) Black Sabbath at Glastonbury...hmm, actually, I'd be cool with any of them headlining Glastonbury if it happened! One request to anyone who is going to do the organisation from Glastonbury, if you're reading this: if you're going to do that, could you also try to get Lindisfarne, Runrig and/or Planxty and organise their sets so that they AREN'T on at the same time as them? If you can do that...I'd like a ticket, please! OK, OK, continuing with critiquing James' performance as a frontman at Glastonbury. I liked his short speech between "Fade To Black" and "Cyanide" as well (it was actually cool to see the guy asking the crowd the questions he did), but, again, I'm not sure dedicating "Cyanide" to everyone watching was really the best decision: the lyrics to "Cyanide" aren't exactly what I'd say are the kind of thing you'd dedicate to someone. I'm not sure he needed to try to use the "brothers and sisters" line or the "Glastonbury family" one, but that's more because it's a bit of a cliche of the metal scene which annoys me whenever I notice it: for an audience that isn't aware of those cliches, it's probably a nice change to have the band trying to actually relate with you and want you to like them instead of basically ignoring you and just playing the music because that's what they're there to do. Whether that's going to be something more bands will try at Glastonbury...I don't know, it seems to be more in line with what works for punk, hard rock and metal music than anything else that goes to Glastonbury. It might set a bit more of a precedent in the future, it might not. Either way, if I'd been in that audience and had that happen, I'd have probably gone "Wow, that's cool!" So yeah, basically, James was a great frontman!

Lars Ulrich

This is the guy I was most worried about, if I'm honest. A lot of people have said that Lars has gone downhill as a drummer since the 90's started, and he wasn't great to start with. While I don't necessarily agree with their final point (thrash drumming is pretty intensive on drummers in general and isn't actually that easy to be able to do to any standard: I might rag on extreme metal drummers for relying heavily on double bass drumming, but I would never claim it's easy to do, as you're still hitting the bass drum very rapidly and, often, with a lot of power to make sure you can provide the punch expected for a metal band) and feel Lars is often unfairly criticised for the band he is in (his drumming isn't necessarily bad, it's just not great by thrash metal standards, which are actually very high standards when you think about what the average thrash metal drummer has to do in a typical song...on a technical level, I'd say that he's not quite into the level of most metal drummers (and most thrash metal drummers could probably outplay Lars without any real difficulties), but he is better than a lot of typical rock drummers in that he will rarely stick with just keeping a beat for the song and at least tries to provide an interesting performance behind the kit which can make paying attention to what he's doing worth it), I will admit that I was expecting a disaster area due to the fact that having a drummer mess up will often mess up everyone else as well. But Lars was, surprisingly, rather good! I wouldn't say he quite matches up to himself on record anyway in the show, but he managed to get through the performance without any real mess ups that I could notice and his double bass technique was a lot stronger than I think people were expecting it to be. I suppose my big concern is that, if this is considered to be one of Lars' best performances in a good while, it's not impossible that he stepped up only for this show and will get noticeably worse in the future. If I could send a message to Lars, I would encourage him to aim to match this standard of drumming from now on (either through practice or doing a bit more warming up before the show) and MAYBE break up the thrash drumming a bit by placing a few less complex songs in between the really difficult ones. It works for Dani Loble of Helloween (and Andi Deris, come to think of it), as it basically allows the guy to rest up a bit with something he can do without any difficulty before he has to go all out on songs like, say, "Kill It" or "Long Live The King".

Kirk Hammett

Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous about Kirk's guitar playing in advance of watching the performance, as I knew the guy had been getting back in touch with his thrash roots (playing shows with Exodus and Death Angel over the last two years will do that to you) and, well, I kind of like how he plays lead guitar (although the fact my knowledge of the guitar is literally just "Three chords and it looks like a guitar" may have something to do with that...). Like Lars, I find Kirk is often unfairly criticised, being perceived by many as a bad guitarist who gets by through doing the same thing with his solos every time (or through ripping off Dave Mustaine, depending on who you ask...). Which may or may not be true (again, I have limited knowledge of how to play the guitar and I do not wish to get into an argument with people about this!), but that doesn't necessarily make his solos bad in and of themselves: thrash metal isn't exactly a genre which demands great technical ability, just an ability to play very quickly, and, in that aspect, Kirk is definitely not a bad lead guitarist. Unoriginal in the creation of his guitar solos? Yeah, that'd be fair. Outright bad? Erm...not really, no. On a technical level, I'd say his lead guitar playing is definitely a lot better than most hard rock lead guitarists and is definitely on par with what a lot of metal lead guitarists can do, if not better in quite a few cases. Anyway, soapbox moment over, I think he did a great job live. For the most part, he replicated his solos from the band's records very well and the few moments where he did slip up were within what I would consider acceptable for a live performance (so, a few minor hiccups that most people would have fairly written off).  Again, however, comments indicate that this is one of Kirk's best performances in a while, so I fear that Kirk could slip back in the future. I really hope he doesn't, as his performance at Glastonbury was really good and actually has me kind of excited for the band's next album...just don't take until 2016 to get it done, as I'm still annoyed at having waited for it since I read news about a new album in 2011! Oh yeah, and please don't get Rubin involved in the production of it, too...sorry, moving on!

Robert Trujillo

The relative new boy to Metallica (he's been in the band since 2003), Rob has never really left an impression on me: I couldn't hear his bass at all on Death Magnetic thanks to the painfully loudly mastered production (thanks for that, Mr. Rubin...OK, OK, I'll stop!), I haven't listened to Beyond Magnetic much and I refuse to acknowledge that I ever listened to Lulu! So this was kind of my first chance to get a measure for Rob...and it still didn't leave me with much of one! For some reason, Rob's bass seemed rather quiet in the BBC iPlayer video, so I can't really say how well he did overall. Bear in mind, I was playing the video AND my laptop speakers at maximum and I was still struggling to hear him properly! Ah well, nitpick aside, he was fun to watch onstage and, when I did hear his bass, he did a fine job on it. No major complaints to make, but I would have liked the bass to have been louder!

So, what are my final thoughts on the show? Well, it was really, really good! A few minor complaints aside, it was just a great show that showed that, at least live, Metallica can bring it when they want to! If the band continue to match this standard on all of their following live shows and release a strong album in 2015 (with...you know where I'm going with that, so I'll stop there!), I reckon they'll still be going strong for at least a few more years! In terms of how their show will impact Glastonbury...I don't know. Part of me is wanting to say "This has broken down the doors, people: metal is coming to Glastonbury, and it'll rock it like a hurricane!", but another part of me suspects that Metallica are going to be known as the first and only metal band to ever play Glastonbury. Metal fans aren't exactly known for being open minded when it comes to a lot of the stuff that Glastonbury plays, so I suspect that metal fans aren't going to start suddenly flocking to Glastonbury and, as such, metal bands aren't likely to start being added because of an audience for them now being there. Throw in the typical people who make up the Glastonbury crowd and Metallica's appearance causing a lot of controversy among that crowd and I doubt another metal band will ever be invited. Maybe some of the people in the crowd will have been won over and encouraged to give hard rock and metal music a chance, but I fear that a large number of people will not have. And that's a huge shame, as Metallica's performance was brilliant! So, even though Metallica's performance is one for the history books, I suspect it will be all for naught in the long run.

But you know what?

If it was all for naught, then at least Metallica gave it their all and, in doing so, gave a performance that was fitting of their status as legends of metal. And that, at the end of the day, is all that the metal scene could have asked of them.

Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10