Having shed its makeup and alien costumes, Peoria natives Mudvayne opened the afternoon with rumbling sludge, though often drowned it in monochromatic screaming. Metallica’s Summer Sanitarium Tour There was no onstage mention of the Napster controversy thats lately swirled around Metallica as the group offered a solid, nearly two-hour survey of their. The Metallica bandmates were elders to the other artists on the bill, which made clear that the headlining speed-metal titans are the last of their kind.

In returning to its roots and reviving its intensity, Metallica made up for lost time and looked to the future. Save for the brazen 'Fuel,' the group ignored its mid- and late-'90s period, which is trivial by comparison. Anger' and 'Frantic' (regrettably, the only songs played from the band's ferocious new record) further stoked the fires. Hetfield's deliberation on his wasted years on 'St. Given current world events and Hetfield's recent alcohol rehab, the older songs - with their themes of addiction, mental psychosis, unchecked violence, environmental destruction, and human costs of war -seemed fitting, and took on additional significance. Tellingly, material from the band's first four albums dominated the set list, with some songs ('Blackened,' 'Harvester of Sorrow') making their first appearance in years. Metallica gave the crowd two solid hours of whiplash, Ulrich gritting his teeth during the menacing 'Seek and Destroy,' Hetfield inflicting belly wounds with shredding downstrokes on a vicious 'Battery,' Hammett playing tug of war with Trujillo on 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' On the second song, a steamrolling rendition of 'Master of Puppets' that hit like a cement block upside the head, Trujillo, Hetfield and guitarist Kirk Hammett were already jamming shoulder to shoulder, the first of several during which precision thrash and blistering speed met in a head-on collision. Like a hunter stalking prey, Trujillo stared out from over his low-slung bass, hulked across the airplane-hangar-size stage and drilled rippling tones into the music.

It didn't take long for new bassist Robert Trujillo to establish himself as a proficient replacement for Jason Newsted. This was a band that had something to prove not only to the audience, but to itself. For the first time in recent memory, he was as sharp as Lars Ulrich, whose drums sat close to the stage floor, situated in the middle to encourage interaction and stir chemistry. A changed man, Hetfield now flashes smiles instead of hoisting cups of beer. With his hair again long and his manic laughter punctuating songs, a sober James Hetfield led the attack.

Summer sanitarium tour