I’ve been waiting for a long time for this – I’m excited to finally put all of this together. What follows is a people’s history of the release of
the 2008 Metallica LP Death Magnetic and the never-ending world tour that the band went on to support it afterward. It’s something I’ve pondered over the last few years and as things just kept happening and tours kept getting extended (theirs and my own) I was wondering when if ever I would be able to detail this and make it complete.
Hell its 2012 and their still releasing songs and footage from the tour as this past Tuesday saw the release of Quebec Magnetic, a live DVD documenting two shows the band played in Quebec City, Canada in October 2009 on their World Magnetic Tour. The first release on their own label Blackened Records.
It was the prompting of this news as well as my friend Ryan’s bday this week to finally put all of this together. Metallica is a religion to Ryan and has been for the 17 years that we have been friends and this piece is largely about him, his dedication to the band and some of the fun we have had with this particular LP and tour cycle. Death Magnetic: A Four-Year (and counting) Odyssey – but how did we get here?
Ozzfest 2008 – August 9th – Pizza Hut Park – Frisco, TX
Let’s start here as it is crucial to what shaped the following tour, the dynamic between Ryan and I, the mania surrounding the release of the LP and to knowledgeable Metallica fans that will tell you the historics of this particular show. The legacy of this show stands on its own and for multiple reasons:
The first is that it was the day that they completed work on Death Magnetic and celebrated that by the debuting the first song heard anywhere from the LP at this show.
To add to its specialness is that Ozzfest is normally a tour, headlined by Ozzy obviously – this year it was a one-day destination festival headlined by Metallica for one lucky city. Almost as if Ryan had conjured it – when it was announced that Frisco (a suburb of Dallas) was indeed that lucky city, I made sure I got my ass home to Texas.
Their were so many other things that contributed to it being such an unforgettable day: A special All-Star Tribute to fallen hero Dimebag Darell of Pantera and Metallica not only performing their 12 min Mercyful Fate medley, but doing it with MF lead singer King Diamond, who also happens to live nearby.
But the day did not start easy…
Ryan and I are very close, like brothers and he is easily one of my closest friends. We have been going to Metallica show together for over 16 years and have traversed all over the state of Texas (and even once out to San Francisco) together doing so & having a blast. Their is no one I would wanna go see them with more and couldn’t imagine attending a show without him. In fact alot of the times I’ve seen them over the years were due to his perseverance where he exceeds me head and shoulders in his fandom and dedication. However you should know as people, and at our base, we are polar opposites in every way.
I am Oscar Madison to his Felix Unger in utter totality, and if you don’t get that reference, I’m the wild and reckless to his cautious and prepared.
Their are a million examples I could give to support this so I’ll settle for just a few:
When he won the Metallica Fan Club contest for us to attend one of the private Fillmore shows back in 2003, he shut his entire computer down and even unplugged it from the wall before rebooting to make certain this was no mistake.
In 1996 when buying tickets online was a relatively new concept, Ryan could not foresee losing his grip of control to that degree and before we left for Austin for this show, he bought another ticket, this one in physical form, that he did not need just because he wasn’t willing to leave his entry to the concert up to a paperless transaction (only to be validated once we got there as our paperless tickets were NOT there).
Their are many others that are just as entertaining as the TV I made reference to, however – you would think that on the day his favorite band is in town, he would be over the moon with anticipation but instead he is literally beside himself with worry – What if something happens to the car the night before? – What if I forget the tickets? etc. He is the guy checking his tire pressure at 3am the night before the show.
Where as I’m the guy usually getting there on song 3 – but with Metallica I do not fuck with his routine and humor him to the best of my ability.
In spite of our differences this has never been a problem before and usually only enhances the fun but today we were actually downright not getting along.
In fact, communication had almost virtually broke down by the time we had reached the parking lot from the hour or so trek from Fort Worth.
He has long since apologized for this but the problem was stemming from some personal issues he was having that had nothing to do with me, but our differences just only seemed to exacerbate the mood he was in – not to mention that their were fundamental issues at large just within the music industry that were causing him an existential crisis and every move I made seemed to say that we were on opposite sides of that coin too.
Here’s an easier way of saying it:
Knowing how important this was to him, I managed to secure two All Access passes for the fest – but their were some people to thank and some corporate hands I had to shake while we were there that made it all possible. Their were backstage politics to endure as well as a few perks that I’ve more than earned that I was interested in taking advantage of. I’m not some spoiled asshole, but an all-day festival in the Summer heat is a bitch and I’ve worked hard to earn the ability to have a little comfort at these things.
This sort of thing completely disgusts Ryan, he does not want to go backstage, does not want any special treatment, he just wants to go to his seat and avoid it entirely, and that’s fine, I completely admire and appreciate that about him and I don’t like kissing corporate ass any more than he does but again if shaking a few hands gets us here to enjoy a day like this, I’m more than happy to do so.
The second thing was this – Again he wasn’t going to leave his entry up to the pilots of American Airlines getting me to Texas on time, he had secured a pair of tickets just in case from a friend at a radio station and I managed to also get four more tickets and this was before I claimed our passes.
Meaning once we were inside we could go anywhere, do anything and we still had six tickets we were not using – this show was totally sold out and keep in mind to the paying customer this was an expensive show –
I wouldn’t wield that sorta influence in a scumbag sorta way to get some girl in a bikini to talk to me, but it does bring up another important issue –
I’ve very social at these things – its the summer time, I’m back in Texas, their are thousands of half-naked rawker sluts running around everywhere and its just a big party – so much so that for me the music sometimes takes a backseat in this type of environment.
Ryan on the other hand is zero-bullshit, all about the music, and that kinda talk is fucking blasphemy as far as he’s concerned, and all you people that are here to gab and pose please get the fuck out of his way.I couldn’t resist and went out and gave tickets to the hottest girls I could find and their were no short supply of them. This infuriated Ryan as he had a plan that I was unaware of, of actually going to all three sets of seats to see which one was best and it was worth the potential to do that to not give our extras to someone else. He totally laughs about this now, and Ryan is usually one of the most generous and thoughtful people I know, so I’m not throwing him under the bus here, but that’s where we were at that day haha.
they were armed with the knowledge that they would shortly be announced as Metallica’s opening act for their entire upcoming tour.
Setlist:
Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians
The Frost Giant’s Daughter
Barael’s Blade
Maiden, Mother & Crone
To Take the Black
The Horned Goddess
March of the Lor
The Black River
Iron Swan
Freya
Besides for the headliners, no one was better represented at Ozzfest than the late “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, of local legends Pantera fame, who was killed onstage in December 2004. This was the first time that Ozzfest has come to Texas in the four years since Dime’s murder. For most of the day, that was in the form of T-shirts, tattoos and the virtual army of men in baggy cargo shorts and pink-dyed goatees. But following the set by Hellyeah, featuring his brother Vinnie Paul on drums, Dimebag’s music was there, too.
Because the two giant screens on either side of the stage were filled with video clips and still photos of Dime rather than footage from the stage, it was difficult to make out who was performing, so we ran down to watch from side-stage.
It was a nice touch, but it helped blunt the power of the all-star jam. If we had stayed where we were it would have been nearly impossible to make out that Lars Ulrich was playing drums on the cover of Wish You Were Here, and wouldn’t have known had I not seen him standing next to Vinnie Paul prior or that the woman singing along with Jerry Cantrell on that cover was Pearl Aday, Meat Loaf‘s daughter and Scott Ian’s (then) fiancée.
Dimebag Tribute Setlist:
Mouth for War – Pantera cover w/Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta on vocals and Mudvayne’s Gregg Tribbett on guitar.
A New Level – Pantera cover w/Max Cavalera and King Diamond and Anthrax’s Scott Ian on guitar.
Wish You Were Here – An acoustic Pink Floyd cover w/Jerry Cantrell, Mike Inez from Alice in Chains, Lars from Metallica, Pearl Aday and Scott Ian from Anthrax.
Fucking Hostile – Pantera cover w/Slayer’s Kerry King.
You will never get those same people on stage together like that again and it was a pretty cool thing to witness. None of these guys were on this tour and all flew in just to do this four-song set and to be apart of this.
I remember when we were standing side-stage, Ryan said “Look that way in about 4 seconds” and suddenly Kerry King was walking toward us, apparently Ryan had caught a glimpse of his arrival and the first of some overdue laughter was on.
The System of a Down guy was next and I was more interested in eating than checking his set. Ryan agreed but wasn’t into going up to catering – their was no way I was going out to spend $8 on stale nachos in general admission so I went up and was treated to a decent meal. Ryan refused to take part but after, we had some fun back there. We saw Sharon Osbourne and then James Hetfield…and then Hetfield’s buddies.
Apparently James is a part of some motorcycle club that were here in full regalia. A couple of the guys apparently wanted to smoke a joint but had no lighter, they saw me smoking a cigarette and asked if we wanted to join them i.e. bring your lighter.
We don’t smoke dope so we declined but naturally gave them the use of the lighter and enjoyed what characters they were.
the Ozzman was coming up next and Ryan and I found some seats, but again this was just a mere distraction for him until Metallica came on. We needed a break from each other as I wanted everything to be awesome when Metallica finally did hit, so I roamed around a bit and decided to go down to the front and get crazy with the fans.
Originally only supposed to play for an hour and fifteen minutes, Ozzy seemed to end his show on time… until guitarist Zakk Wylde put everyone to sleep with a half-hour full-on guitar solo, capping it off with the Star-Spangled Banner like this was freaking Woodstock before Ozzy came back on stage and performed well into Metallica’s time slot. Whether intentional or not, it certainly seemed as if Ozzy was trying to upstage the headliners, reminding Metallica of just who the festival is named for.Ok it was almost time…and the first time in four years either of us had seen Metallica. Would we hear some new stuff tonight?
After a half-hour of set-up, Metallica took the stage and made everyone forget that any other bands had played. Seriously.
I began to think “Well at least it was THIS one, as it didn’t seem to have as much at stake as a normal Metallica show” – but what followed took us both by surprise as they proceeded with one of the most unique and fun Metallica shows ever, that did wonders for repairing the breach.
For example this might sound odd, but they were really sloppy but not in a Van Halen at the US Festival way, but in a loose fun way I had never seen them perform like. And the setlist was bananas –Then James says “We finished mixing our new album, Death Magnetic, earlier today” – “We are gearing up for the album’s release on September something-or-other” adding, “We’re pretty damn proud of it, and we can’t contain it any longer.!!”
And proceeds to give us the first taste of the new album anywhere in the world with the song Cyanide which was a sign of good things to come.
That was only surpassed by the band’s extended medley of Mercyful Fate songs. After a quick break, the band came out for its encore playing Mercyful Fate covers fronted by the grease-painted falsetto howling of the group’s own King Diamond.
Lars asks – “Are you ready for about 12 minutes of Satan?”
Ryan and I looked at each other and said two words – “Fuck” and “Yes.”
The band finished its set with an inspired version of Seek and Destroy, before giving props to all the bands, fans, and crew that made the event possible.
Despite starting a half-hour late, Metallica played for well over an hour after their planned timeslot, with the band staying onstage and thanking the fans well past 12:30am.
Who knew today was gonna be so damn special? – With all the music, surprises, and of course…..the fans –
Ryan and I just couldn’t seem to get ourselves to leave, this was due to a mix of exhaustion and just disbelief. Here is a fatigued, but much happier version of us at the end of a long, unforgettable day.
One of my favorite stories about Ryan & Metallica is back in 2003, the day their previous album St. Anger was released, naturally he invited me over so we could listen to it together. This man lives from release to release and it had been 7 years and one bass player ago since the last one. I won’t open a pros and cons discussion here about their 90s output but with their painfully honest movie Some Kind of Monster that preceded this release and who’s footage was promising us something more akin to the aggression we had come to expect from them, the anticipation for this release was higher than normal.
When I walked into his house he grabbed a new, unopened copy of St. Anger from atop a stack of them and flung it my way and said “Happy St. Anger Day dude” –
As a dual expression of his excitement and generosity, he had purchased copies of St Anger for me and all of his friends – and he is not made of money to drive the point home. He wanted everyone to have the album at no risk to them and felt that it should come from him. Awesome. He was out to do the same on this day –
He had already heard the record via a digital copy he had purchased but I had not. Everyone knows music always sounds better in a car, so we gave it the ‘ol car test and drove around for over an hour having a great time listening to this like we were 16 years old.
Musically, the album is a radical departure from St. Anger, which featured no guitar solos and a more modern sound. This album, on the other hand, features very long, technical guitar solos from both Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, marking a return to the band’s thrash metal roots. Our jaws were literally on the floor.
It felt so good to be able to have the time to give such a deserving record the same teenage importance of old, and getting there on release day and obsessing like kids over every note, and this record totally inspires that.
In spite of its title (which was inspired by a photograph of Layne Staley from Alice in Chains that Kirk had brought into the studio as James began to ponder why someone with such talent would choose this path) Death Magnetic sounds more like it’s about coming back to life, everything about it just comes together.
I was now back in NYC and about to see Metallica for the first time without Ryan since he and I met in 1996. We had a streak of something like 12 shows in a row together. This was also my first time seeing Metallica in New York and only the second time ever outside of Texas so needless to say it was gonna be a different experience tonight.
I was managing a band made up of former members of the band Glassjaw and Masters of the Universe called Red Cavalry who were taking me to the show as a thank you for a good first year together. Two of the three members live out here on Long Island so I was getting the full NY experience.As I mentioned in the Ozzfest portion, the opening act for the tour was the Sword along with Machine Head –
Its always strange when you see a band that you are used to seeing in small clubs make the transition to bigger venues, but we just saw the Sword at a club that holds about 300 people and now to see them in a huge arena was a little surreal.
After a brief set change we began to hear AC/DC’s It’s a Long Way to the top if you wanna Rock N Roll – that for veterans of Metallica shows will tell you, signifies that this is the last song of the intermission and Metallica are next so the next time you go see Metallica and you hear this song come on and hear some informed roars from the crowd you will now know why.
Then of course the lights go down and the always effective intro of The Ecstasy of Gold starts to play and it was disappointing not to look over at Ryan and see him overcome with emotion by the spectacle though I appreciated their generosity, and we were having our unique fun.
Finally we hear “Stroooooong Island! Are you with me?” from James and we were off to the races –
Though Ryan and I saw the Ozzfest show, of course that show was a one-off as compared to this was seeing the this tours production value for the first time and it was incredible.
Heavy metal concerts can all blur into one another after a while, as a sea of black t-shirts, frothing mosh pits, and overpriced beers. But when Metallica comes to town, it’s no run-of-the-mill arena show, its an event with the most rabid fans ever.
The show opened with two new songs off Death Magnetic, accompanied by a laser show that had a great old-school arena rock feel to it.
The stage was centered in the middle of the arena with a rotating drum kit and approximately six microphones so the band could perform for every fan in attendance. Large steel coffins lowered toward the stage from above with attached laser lights gunning throughout the venue.The lasting image of that show that has stayed with me since is one of James’ unrepeatable inspired chants of the chorus to Broken, Beaten, & Scarred totally away from the mic, head back and totally to himself, lost in an oblivion.
Rob Trujillo’s bass-work is fantastic and fits in really well but I still miss Jason Newsted’s powerful stage presence.
During the encore, large black inflatable beach balls plummeted from the ceiling converting the Coliseum into a heavy metal beach party.
That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Creeping Death
The Thing That Should Not Be
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad but True
The Unforgiven (w/acoustic And Justice For All intro)
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master of Puppets
Damage, Inc.
Nothing Else Matters
Enter SandmanEncore:
Stone Cold Crazy (Queen cover)
Phantom Lord
Seek & Destroy
Not taking any chances of not getting in. Here is where sacrifice comes in, I knew what was at stake by committing to this. I was sorely reminded when I saw the guys from Devo walk in to see it too. I knew that they, and Tricky, the New York Dolls, Raekwon and Dinosaur Jr, were scattered all over the city this night, but again I was here to see (and work with) young, new bands and if I was gonna spend the evening seeing an older established one, I was gonna see the biggest and the baddest.
At least they TRIED to hide it, and come off new, by listing themselves as Volsung, from “somewhere in Norway” complete with umlauts and mystique.
James joked (in an admittedly bad accent) that “we are from Norway, we wish to get signed!” and realizing that his attempt at the accent was closer to sounding Asian, he retorts “…maybe we’re Chinese?”
I had heard later about the (no doubt expected) catastrophe of controlling the crowd outside but I somehow missed all of that and was convinced that the hype had simply talked people out of even trying to get in, I got my laminates, got in line, waited for doors to open for about an hour, and then went in. Easy breezy. I was inside shortly after 7pm, but I heard that when Metallica started just before 10pm that it looked like the Tet Offensive outside.
This was officially an Activision party to promote their newest export Guitar Hero: Metallica, and they had a couple of opening bands play, Silversun Pickups, and Bassnectar. Then the super-dorks that had won a week long Guitar Hero competition were going to “perform” for the crowd, and Metallica was only billed as to make an appearance but again, nice try, everyone knew what the score was.
After the two openers a local DJ comes out, introduces the winning nerds, who take their positions, behind their prospective fake instruments, and play Metallica’s Fuel while the screen the gamers are playing on, is projected on the huge white awning that covers the mainstage, almost like it was built to serve this very purpose.
Then, it was time…Now the second time in a row seeing them without Ryan and now the first time technically by myself.
I had passed the time talking to this Asian girl/Australian guy couple when the very inebriated female half took great interest in me and the silly credentials hanging around my neck. She was supercute and her boyfriend was really cool (and sober) but when she talked to me, she would get so uncomfortably close to my mouth and stare at my lips that I was convinced that she was gonna drunkenly kiss me, followed by him punching me. No matter how many times I had to remind her that “no, its not a joint, I simply roll my own cigarettes” she would insist to take a hit off of it, thus thinking this was the impetus for her come-ons. Dude knew what the score was, and I could tell that he probably deals with this from her often, so everytime she would ask me a question, I would reply with my answer to him. At one point, she not only spilled her drink on me, she somehow managed to pour it in my pants, and down the front no less.
I would have normally just removed myself but again, it was sardines city no matter where you were and I was pretty close to the front. Now I may have looked like I had just pissed myself but I (and the rest of the crowd) were about to do exactly that, as the band started with Creeping Death, at ear splitting volume.
Their is no way this wasn’t heard from blocks away. Not as if they weren’t giving it their all, or blowing it off, not at all, but there was something very punk rock about this show.
Setlist:
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Harvester of Sorrow
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
Sanitarium
Master of Puppets
Blackened
Breadfan
Whiplash
Seek and Destroy
World Magnetic Tour – September 29th 2009 – American Airlines Arena – Dallas, TX
On the subject of returns, rebirths and renewals – a couple of people entered/re-entered our lives besides Metallica this year. While on tour with Clutch earlier in the year I had a chance meeting with my oldest friend of (then) 22 years, Chris, that I had lost contact with for five long years that felt like fifty.
Ryan had met a nice girl named Meghan that is perfect for him that he coincidentally just recently married in November of 2012.
See Ryan so content finally and having Chris back in my life has been so tremendous – that our little group expanded to four when the band returned to Dallas.
It was Chris’ birthday just a few days prior and I had got him tickets as a gift and flew home for the show.
Ryan is the all-seeing, all-knowing in our circle when it comes to Metallica so it was strange that I had already seen the tour, twice and he hadn’t.
It came as close to Houston actually, just a few months after Ozzfest and I’m surprised that he didn’t make it down there, but adulthood being what it is he ended up having to wait a full year to actually to see it.
But tonight was the night –
Chris and I had missed both openers – Gojira and Lamb of God to no remorse (see what I did there?) but Chris didn’t know that Gojira was playing and was disappointed. I had never heard of them and we both could care less about Lamb of God, but we did hear that former S.O.D. crazyman Billy Milano, joined them onstage from out of nowhere and they did the S.O.D. track United Forces which would have been fun to see if nothing for its novelty.
Now it was time for Metallica – Chris hadn’t seen the band in 15 years! since we went together in the summer of 1994, almost two full years before Ryan and I had become friends – like he hadn’t seen them once during Ryan and I’s entire friendship! – So it was so great to have him back and us doing the thing.
Entering like prize fighters thru the crowd, The Ecstasy of Gold of course brought the band out as the heartbeat at the intro of That Was Just Your Life set the pacing of the show with lasers bathing the entire arena in layers. Not wasting a second the band tore into the Death Magnetic lead-off track and from there it was full bore for the next two and half-hours.
The band now seasoned in this stage configuration worked it like a well-oiled team, as they broke into a true rarity of the Four Horsemen (which was a sign of good things to come) – One thing that is also conducive to this narrative of being reborn is that for the first time in the 20+ years I’ve been coming to their shows, they are switching up a portion of the songs nightly. They are the best live band I’ve ever seen and now we would finally get that addition that I’ve enjoyed so much with other bands. The band’s now familiar in-the-round stage set is now harnessed by four coffin-shaped lighting rigs that dropped and hovered above the band during certain intervals of the show.
However in the annals of our storytelling their are two songs we are clear that we are not going to hear. One being Escape as of prior to 2012 it had never been played live and the other is Dyer’s Eve, a song that we had heard they had actually played a few times on this tour for the first time since its release 20 years ago.So it was pure furnace power throughout the arena when tonight, finally they actually played it. The relief of the informed was tantamount and very audible of the perfect treat of the inaugural show of our now posse of four.
The End of the Line
The Four Horsemen
Holier Than Thou
One
Broken, Beat & Scarred
Cyanide
Sad but True
The Unforgiven (Call of Ktulu Intro tease)
All Nightmare Long
The Day That Never Comes
Master of Puppets
Dyers Eve
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Encore:
Breadfan (Budgie cover)
Whiplash
Seek & Destroy
Talk about coming full circle and rebirth, that’s Chris and I on the left and obviously Ryan and Megan on the right…
….now check out Chris and I, 22 years prior in front of our shared locker in middle school right after the first Garage Days had come out.
…and so is Metallica – two years after the above show, in some the best possible examples of owning the past, present and future.
1) Being inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame and in classic fashion without all of the dysfunction that other acts can sometimes bring.
2) They staged two big shows, one on each coast dubbed the Big Four where they invited Slayer, Megadeth & Anthrax that make up the said four of Thrash Metal, to all play together for the first time in the 30 years that each group has been together.
You can read all about our adventures at those two shows here – and here.
3) In December of 2011, they played a series of shows at the Fillmore in their hometown of San Francisco to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary and invited every living person that’s ever had anything to do with the band and every former member, not just the ones on record, but everyone in every inception, to perform including Dave Mustaine.
And from that comes the following…
The band stated the following about the EP-
“During the Death Magnetic album sessions in 2007 and 2008, we originally recorded 14 songs. When it came time to pick the songs for the final album, we decided on 10 songs that you’ve all come to know over the last three years… Some of you may have heard bits and pieces of those other songs and wondered, ‘What ever happened to those other four songs?” We kept them in the vault and decided to pull them just for this special celebration, so here are the four leftover tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions. They are ROUGH mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March ’08. These four songs were released as a gift to our closest fans, the members of our Fan Club, to enjoy. Now they’re being made available to you.”
…but here it is four years since Death Magnetic and they are STILL releasing music from it – Is the record just that good? – Are they simply dragging it out and milking it for all its worth? …or are the songs, even the ones that didn’t make the record deserve to be heard?.
I’ll let you decide but if your asking me I say yes – Their are a couple that are pretty clear as to why they were not as strong as the ones that did eventually make the record, but a song like Just a Bullet Away make clear that logistically, their just wasn’t enough room on a CD to fit it.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Jara Cobb
Paco Rosales
Shawn Morton
Marci Ross
Greg Maston
