Metallica brings its pyrotechnics to HSBC Arena
Published: November 11, 2009, 8:28 am
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The best heavy metal has always been unified by one common subtext. You know that side of yourself you’ve been ignoring all these years, that ugly bit that you’ve kept hidden in the closet all this time while you went about your society-approved business? Well, guess what? It’s still there. And it’s waiting for you.
No band better encapsulates this concept than Metallica, the quartet of Californians who became the only American band capable of giving the early-1980s new wave of British heavy metal bands, which was its peer group, a run for its money.
Tuesday, a mostly full HSBC Arena welcomed James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammet and Robert Trujillo to town with a clenched fist and an open heart. In a popular music scene that looks down its nose at longevity, Metallica represents a hardheaded individuality, a belief in the necessity to do things one’s own way. Yes, it’s only metal — a collection of riffs, unexpected shifts in time signature, lyrics that take a rather dim view of human nature, and a sometimes garish display of pyrotechnical virtuosity. But when it’s on — and when Metallica plays, it is most definitely on — the form transcends itself.
Tuesday, the prevalent common theme in the songs Metallica played was the inevitability of death. Yet somehow, the concert was incredibly uplifting.
The band is touring in support of its three-times platinum album “Death Magnetic,” and after a dramatic introduction of prerecorded music, the band took the stage with the opening tune from that record, “That Was Just Your Life.”
The lights stayed low, a laser light presentation offering most of the illumination, as singer/ guitarist Hetfield crouched like a caged animal in front of his mic stand, a bare light bulb shining up at him from the stage floor. It was ominous, scary, tense and incredibly dynamic, and it all exploded like a good sneeze when the house lights erupted in conjunction with the song’s final downbeat.
They went straight into “End of the Line,” a new song that displays the band’s fondness for the twin-guitar harmony figures of Thin Lizzy. Here, Hammet offered the first of many stellar hyper-picked solos; though he plays fast and flashy, the guitarist paces himself, his solos unfolding in a dramatic, tension-and-release fashion. The crowd, by this point, was well into it.
Hetfield said hello to the assembled, acknowledged the fact that they would probably like to hear some old stuff and led the band directly into the one-two punch of “Creeping Death” — an early epic — and “No Remorse.” When the song ended, Metallica owned the Buffalo crowd.
Though its members have clearly become better musicians, Metallica itself hasn’t really changed all that much. Sure, the late ’90s, when the band sought to connect itself with the tradition of its form by embracing classic rock songs, was represented by a fiery take on Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page.” But as well-received as that song was, it was clear that the more complex, multilayered and challenging Metallica was the one folks had laid down their dollars for.
So, of course, the grandiose “One” was on the menu, as was the swanky, frankly funky “Sad but True.”
Metallica delivered the goods, no question. The group, now a quarter-century old, is clearly far from finished.
Concert Review
Metallica
With Volbeat and Lamb of God, Tuesday evening in HSBC Arena.
jmiers@buffnews.com
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