Metallica – Six FeetDown Under EP (Part I)

Mon 10th Jan, 2011 in Music Reviews

Ah Metallica. Love them or loathe them, they know how to piss people off ( St Anger, Napster) and still keep the fans coming back for more. To coincide with the recent Death Magnetic tour and despite Lars Ulrich being the poster boy of anti-music piracy, the band have released an eight track EP of bootlegs.

Eye of the Beholder (Live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, May 4th, 1989)
The oldest track on the EP, the sound is surprisingly, excellent considering the recording itself is over twenty years old. The audio levels peak and drop consistently, but James Hetfield’s vocals never falter during the track. The cheers of the crowd are something special. However, at 2:11, some dude starts talking, and the recording picks up his voice.

…And Justice For All (Live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, May 4th, 1989)
As far as sound goes, this recording from the same Melbourne show, picks up way too much crowd chatter, and the sound is a tad muffled. However, when the vocals kick in, they are clear as day, and the crowd can be heard singing along. Crunching vocals, classic metal and wolf whistles from various crowd members make this recording.

Fast-forward four years, and Metallica return to our shores for the ‘Nowhere Else To Roam’ world tour.

Through The Never (Live at the Entertainment Centre in Perth, April 8th, 1993)
Muffled sound kicks off song and a boom of what sounds like a smoke cannon. It’s loud and boisterous, with the sound peaking up and down. Hetfield’s vocals are quite poor here, but Kirk Hammett’s guitar work makes up for the rest of the song. While no real crowd chatter can be heard here, the sound quality is a slight degrade from other tracks on the EP.

The Unforgiven (Live at the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne, April 4th, 1993)
Recorded a few days earlier, the sound quality on The Unforgiven is utterly superb and although the vocals are ever so slightly drowned out it doesn’t really detract from what is one hell of a song. It’s impressive that despite being eighteen years ago, this fan made recording is better than most bootlegs that come by today.

Another four years later, and it’s the ‘Poor Re-Touring Me’ world tour, with two more tracks, including one acoustic recording from our friends on the west coast.

Low Man’s Lyric (Acoustic) (Live at the Entertainment Centre in Perth, April 11th, 1998)
Another superb recording. With Hetfield declaring “It’s time to fuck around a bit,” the band known as one of the Big Four of metal begin an acoustic rendition of Low Man’s Lyric. Some mild microphone interference, most likely from Hetfield stepping on a lead give the recording the ‘authentic bootleg’ approach, but it’s an incredibly nice change of pace for the EP, and probably the finest moment of the Six Feet Down Under release.

Devil’s Dance (Live at the Entertainment Centre in Perth, April 12th, 1998)
Once again, a top notch bootleg from a fan. Vocals, and instrumentals here are flawless. The recording here is one of the cleanest (despite all the recordings on offer being cleaned up by a sound engineer where possible.) Hetfield banters a bit before the recording, declaring they’re here, whether the crowd missed them or not. Deep bass lines pulse, rhythm guitar kicks in, and we’re treated to some classic metal by one of the biggest names in the business.

Fast forward once more, and it’s time for the ‘Madly In Anger With The World Tour’. Yes, it’s 2004, the St Anger years.

Frantic (Live at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, January 21st, 2004)
Hetfield asks for a show of hands as to has St Anger, and declares ‘”that’s a lot of anger.” The song is pretty pathetic, and self indulgent. The recording quality itself however, is quite strong. It wasn’t long after this show that Metallica began recording shows for the fans.

Fight Fire With Fire (Live at the Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, January 19th, 2004)
Final track for the EP heralds back to Ride The Lighting, with Fight Fire With Fire. The guitar is slightly crunched and muffled at first but classic speed metal ballads kick in. If anything, it adds to an already nostalgic EP, and is a fantastic choice to close the Six Feet Down Under experience.

Metallica have really created something special here, in what is a unique way of thanking the fans of all the support over the years. Six Feet Down Under Part II is available now, and features live recordings from the recent tour, completing the collection, for now…