Metallica, Fear Factory, TheSword @ Acer Arena, Sydney(18/9/10)

Tue 21st Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Are you a glass half full or glass half empty kind of person? It was all about which attitude you took to determine the success level of The Sword. Half empty would have seen some dudes playing to a scattered, relatively small audience at a dreaded early time. Half full, conversely, saw a group of energetic Texans making the most out of one of the more enviable support gigs going around for heavy bands. Make of it what you will, but it was hard not to be impressed by The Sword’s enthusiasm for performing – even if it took a little while to adapt to the in-the-round performance style. Stylistically, we’re listening to a product of a strict diet of Kyuss, Sabbath, Deep Purple and weed. It wasn’t exactly innovative, and a sense of over-familiarity crept through the set – thanks in no small part to having all of their songs in the same key. That said, it was a great way to kick things off – the quartet made a few new mates tonight, and are bound to make more when they come back for Soundwave early next year.

The lights went down, the industrial whirrs blared over the P.A. and Burton C. Bell took up his role of a gruff-voiced Captain Obvious: “We! Are! Fear Factory !” Hey, buddy, long time no see. What’s it been, a couple of months since the band toured? No matter – at least they’ve got original guitarist Dino Cazares back on board these days. For fans, this means two things. The first is that we don’t have to hear any of the weaker tracks from post-Cazares FF records. The second is that we get plenty of old stuff – highlights from Demanufacture and Digimortal were the order of the day for the band’s set, much to the delight of some of the dedicated fans in the crowd. There were, of course, some who weren’t quite getting it; and the sluggish live mix wasn’t doing the band many favours, It’s unfortunate that the only times the crowd really came together was when Bell started to mention the M word. Still, the band is on their way back to their A-game – somewhere around a B minus at this stage.

It’s one thing to leave a metal crowd waiting – it’s another entirely to leave a Metallica crowd waiting. Nearly twenty minutes after they were due on stage, the thousands of punters in attendance were ready for blood. James, Lars, Kirk and Rob all came on one by one in lightning quick flashes, kicking straight into overdrive with Death Magnetic opener That Was Just Your Life. We didn’t need another invitation. Loud-and-proud fans were united in a full-force energy that resulted in unrelenting enthusiasm for absolutely everything that went on, from Lars Ulrich leaping off his kit to scream at the crowd to Hetfield calling for crowd participation.

Sure, the band probably gets the same god-like treatment everywhere they go. They’re international rockstars, it’s part-and-parcel these days. That said, it was still a rush to be a part of the first Sydney show for the band since they headlined the Big Day Out back in 2004 – and it was no stretch to say that ‘Tallica was feeling said rush. Mostly borrowing from their eighties and early nineties catalogue, each member worked their way around each spot of the stage, soaking in the atmosphere and playing almost-entirely faithful renditions note for note. ‘Almost’, for the record, has nothing to do with the sloppiness of any member: the band now uses half-step-down tuning, making some tracks unrecognisable at first. Once it clicked, however – the pounding intro of Four Horsemen, the thunderous tom rolls of Enter Sandman or even the classical guitar work of Nothing Else Matters – the audience picked up and ran with it.

Hammett seems to never stop smiling, even in the midst of one of his many blister-inducing solos, while Trujillo’s now-famous “crab man” bass-playing stance gets a cheer and a raise of the horns wherever he ends up on stage. Even Lars, stationed at his kit, got in on the in-the-round fun, rotating his kit clockwise every half-hour. The band were on stage for over two hours, and yet it never felt like an overstayed welcome – even with the washing baskets’ worth of fluffy towels on hand (again, international rockstars), the band never appeared weary or exhausted. That’s pretty good for a band that is mostly made up of dudes edging dangerously close to their fifties. What’s this rubbish about being too old to rock?

Highlights came thick and fast, but perhaps it was the collision course of two of the band’s defining tracks – …And Justice For All’s One and the title track from the classic Master of Puppets – that made the evening. Although contrasting considerably in melody and temperament – the former a slow-burning ballad, the latter a balls-out thrash anthem – they showcased to many in attendance why it is they clicked with the band in the first place. It’s the energy, the musicality, the unforgiving lyrical imagery and the timelessness of these works that has ensured a turnout in droves ever since their release.

Kill ‘Em All’s Seek And Destroy brought the set to a close, with Hetfield ensuring that everyone was singing the chorus by turning on the houselights. “You’re all on our stage now,” he said with his trademark serial-killer grin, before giant black balloons fell from the sky and onto the audience. They might end practically all of their shows with this very song, but to say Metallica phone in their performances would be to miss the point. How on earth a band could even attempt to phone in a show with such adrenalin, speed and fiery passion is at the point of incomprehensibility.

Your wallet might not forgive you, but if you’re after a rock & roll show with something to offer everyone from the shirtless bogan in the pit to the rock geeks in the stands, then this is a truly unmissable band.

Check out the photos from the show