Metallica at London Stadium

There exist myriads of music myths, some still alive and popular today. One of them says that Macca has been dead since the 1960s, and many people somehow believe it; the other states – sort of in the form of a running joke – that Metallica ended on Kill ‘Em All, their very first album. This implies that they have not produced a record worth listening to since then.

Perhaps Seek & Destroy, actually a part of their debut, was the crème de la crème, the most riveting moment from the band’s first night at the London Stadium, a part of the M72 World Tour. But if you have been there for all the treats, you know that Metallica will never end. Those four friends have never truly lost it – excelling in both composure and confidence, they have achieved a kind of synchrony. It felt like you were visiting a nearby studio instead of an actual stadium.

The infectious anticipation was tangible right from the start, especially when the band decided to make their entry to Ennio Morricone’s theme (The Ecstasy of Gold) from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Like four American cowboys from Leone’s Western, who had just arrived in English land, Metallica commenced with Creeping Death. And nothing was the same from that point. Crowds going mad, the boys having fun, the sound piercing your body like the arrow that went through Achilles’ heel: it’s everything you expect from a concert of the quartet.

“We’ve been lucky to be on this stage for the last 45 years,” said James Hetfield at some point during the show, underlining how important fans have always been (and still are) to the whole band. Perhaps their token of gratitude was to play various tracks from almost every single album, so we were able to hear Holier Than Thou, Orion (one of the fans’ favourites), Hardwired, or, of course, Nothing Else Matters.

Eight tower installations – functioning both as song visualisers and video projectors – allowed the audience to see the band at its best from a few close-ups (in a massive stadium like this one, they were barely visible). Thanks to the visuals, we were able to have some quirky fun with Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo covering The Clash’s Guns of Brixton; and we could also notice a few heartfelt smiles, which often appeared on each band member’s face.

When standing near Lars Ulrich’s drum set and playing next to each other, they looked almost as if they were by the campfire, just four lads having some fun, even if it was still West Ham’s stadium. But they were still there for every single person in the room. “You are the loudest instrument in Metallica’s repertoire,” Hetfield genuinely remarked somewhere near the end, some time before ending the show with the extended and triumphant version of Master of Puppets.

It seems that without us, there’s no Metallica. And without Metallica, there is no us.