Metallica play only European show of 2013 at Roskilde Festival (July 6)

Performance marked the metal legends first appearance at the Danish event in 10 years

Metallica played their only European show of the year at Roskilde Festival last night (July 6).

Their set also marked the band’s first appearance at the festival in 10 years – located in Denmark, the country of drummer Lars Ulrich’s birth – and while the thrash metal legends kicked off with Ennio Morricone’s ‘Ecstasy of Gold’ on the big screen (a clip from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly) it was far from a normal show, with rare outings for some songs.

After kicking things off with ‘Blackened’, James Hetfield, dressed in denim waistcoat covered in patches representing the group’s contemporaries such as Slayer and Motörhead, told the crowd in customary fashion: “Metallica is with you…” before asking “are you with us?” The crowd responded in the affirmative.

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‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ then followed with Lars Ulrich raising a massive cheer by leaping from his drum kit at the conclusion of the track. Ahead of ‘Harvester of Sorrow’, Hetfield noted that Roskilde Festival has been operational for over 40 years, then paid tribute to music fans who were willing to sleep in tents in order to hear their favourite bands.

Metallica then played two numbers in quick succession that rarely get played; ‘Carpe Diem Baby’ and ‘I Disappear’, before beginning the more familiar ‘Sad But True’ with the words “do you want heavy? Metallica gives you heavy!” The band made first use of pyrotechnics during ‘One’, which was proceeded with helicopter noises and fireworks. ‘Master of Puppets’ soon followed and Metallica left the stage for the first time.

Between ‘Battery’ and ‘Nothing Else Matters’ guitarist Kirk Hammett performed an acoustic solo, while James Hetfield held up a plectrum to signify the Big Four before ‘Enter Sandman’, made all the more poignant by the recent death of Slayer’s Jeff Hannemann.

Two hours in and Metallica still had time for three more songs. For the encore they returned and played ‘Fuel’ with flames jettisoning out of the stage, finishing with a rousing ‘Seek and Destroy’ with black balloons projected into the crowd. The show ran for more than two and a half hours by the conclusion.

‘Blackened’
‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’
‘Disposable Heroes’
‘Harvester of Sorrow’
‘The Day That Never Comes’
‘Carpe Diem Baby’
‘I Disappear’
‘Sad But True’
‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’
‘Orion’
‘One’
‘Master of Puppets’
‘Battery’
‘Nothing Else Matters’
‘Enter Sandman’

‘Fuel’
‘Creeping Death’
‘Seek and Destroy’

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