Tag Archives: Metallica

Metallica, Gig Review. Etihad Stadium, Manchester.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

In its short history the Etihad Stadium, the home of the current Premier League champions Manchester City, has witness despondency and glory in almost equal measure, but perhaps its more defining moments have come in the last ten years, late goals which have described a generation. A single moment in which a crowd hero made his mark for eternity deep into stoppage time and left a commentator breathless, a television hanging on the end of an extended vowel that still raises the hairs on the back of the neck and sends a shiver down the spine of anyone fortunate to have witnessed it take place.

Metallica, Gig Review. Etihad Stadium, Manchester. full post

(576 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Metallica, The $5.98 E.P: Garage Days Re-Revisited. 2018 Reissue. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When the band were fresh faced and riding on the high of three hugely successful, and later considered dramatically influential, albums, Metallica could do no wrong, they were the epitome of the new breed of American Heavy Metal that had come to teach the cousins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean that they had had their time in the sun and now was the time for the San Francisco Bay to become the epicentre of this new home, this heavier and demanding sound that struck gracious fear into those that lived and told the tale of the four horsemen of the hammer, anvil and foundry apocalypse.

Metallica, The $5.98 E.P: Garage Days Re-Revisited. 2018 Reissue. E.P. Review. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Metallica, Gig Review. The Hydro, Glasgow.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Metallica at the Glasgow Hydro. October 2017. Photograph used by kind permission of Graeme Smith.

The question is always asked, when will Metallica tour again, when they come and do more than one performance at a festival inside the U.K., invariably in a field somewhere as the night envelops the crowd and the memories of shows inside small venues, let alone the glory of the sell out arena start to fade into the distance. The bigger the group, unfortunately the more the world wants to share in the music, and that is of course arguably the only right way to think.

Metallica, Gig Review. The Hydro, Glasgow. full post

(470 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

The Saturday Night Arcade Fight.

We dominated the arcade game

even at the end of the night

when half cut, you on Newquay Steam,

vapour trails followed your hand

as we took the Mutant Turtles

to the sound of Metallica’s

Seek and Destroy in Costermongers

every Saturday night to new extremes;

Searching seek… garbled mess of lyrics

following, yet in tandem

Dear Cousin,

we struck blow after blow

and we raised our beer bottles high

as we drove to victory

in Costermongers every Saturday night.

The Saturday Night Arcade Fight. full post

(88 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)

Metallica, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Arguably Metallica will go down in history as the kings of American Metal, if not contenders for the band that Empires quake and fall for, yet for all the blazing guns, the screams of red hot pokers as they clash against the sabre, the sword and the caressed steel, there was undoubtedly a period in which some of the fan base felt lost in the group’s company. Following on from the Black Album and right through to the debacle that was St. Anger, there was a general feeling of unease in the air, it cut through the swathes of vinyl, through the past honours and threatened to disable the moorings of one of the finest music ships ever created.

Metallica, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. Album Review. full post

(452 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Metallica, …And Justice For All. 25th Anniversary Retrospective.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Four albums in and Metallica confirmed their place as the world’s biggest Metal band with the release of …And Justice For All. As years in music go, 1988 was a phenomenal year for Heavy Metal of any sub-genre, Iron Maiden had released the superb Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Queensryche had raised the bar to a new height with the epic Operation Mindcrime and Megadeth showed what was to come in the form of the interesting So Far, So Good…So What. …And Justice For All was the best of all worlds, the fusion of Progressive, the barbed sterile lyric feel in which the music reigned supreme and despite the incredible loss of Cliff Burton, the band were able to top the brilliance of the previous album Master of Puppets and give their audience perhaps arguably the finest album of their career. Out of such adversity facing the band with the loss of the superb Cliff Burton came the outstanding entrance of bassist Jason Newsted.

Metallica, …And Justice For All. 25th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(1209 words, estimated 4:50 mins reading time)

Metallica, Kill ‘Em All. 30th Anniversary Retrospective.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

For many it was the album that was the beginning of Thrash Metal. The next logical step from Heavy Metal that found its way from America as in an exuberant recognition that British Heavy Metal had stolen a march on the genre. Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All certainly stands out as being part of the genre but it’s overall feel 30 years after its release is more of being the partially formed conception, the gestation period before the moment of truth with Metallica’s Ride The Lightning coming in 1984 and the genre exploding in its classic era between 1985 and 1992 when bands such as Sacred Reich, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax easily stood head and shoulders above anything coming out of continental Europe and in some respects the U.K.

Metallica, Kill ‘Em All. 30th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(827 words, estimated 3:18 mins reading time)

Metallica, St. Anger. 10th Anniversary Retrospective.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

As Metallica’s St. Anger turns ten years old it is worth remembering that upon release it polarised views of critics and fans alike. There were those that admired the stark honesty that Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and especially vocalist James Hetfield tried to convey after many years away from the studio. For others it was a departure they couldn’t cope with, the hard beating disturbed heart that was evident throughout the metal beasts first four albums had at first been replaced by a radio friendly outlook that bought extra fans to the band but also grinded the teeth of those who had come to expect a blistering hardcore sound on any album and then the further departure as they went more commercial. Something was lost between …And Justice For All, the so called Black album, Load/Reload and then in 2003 the album that sounds as clear as mud, St Anger.

Metallica, St. Anger. 10th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(801 words, estimated 3:12 mins reading time)

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Merseyside undisputedly produces some great bands of every music genre that it is possible to list and yet somehow in amongst the maelstrom and cacophony of disparate tunes and compositions, heavy metal doesn’t get that much of a look in. Very few bands have touched upon the field of crashing and brutal guitars placed within the heart of a superb drum beat and told the tale in Liverpool. From out of the darkness come the Wirral’s Buckle Tongue and one of the new great bands to watch out for in 2013.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(383 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Metallica, Gig Review. o2 Arena, London.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 30th 2009.

For a time it looked as though the band that had spawned classic albums such as Master of Puppets, …And Justice for All and Ride the Lightning had reached a dead end, in the studio and on tour. So much so that even loyal fans and critics started questioning the band’s future when they released St. Anger in 2003.

With the release of Death Magnetic last year, all of that has been forgiven and forgotten. This album has transferred so well to the live show that the band have largely, (with a couple of exceptions) scrubbed clean the years 1993 to 2007 off their set list.

Metallica, Gig Review. o2 Arena, London. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)