The decision to let fans pick eight tracks from Metallica’s Trans-Tasman Tour last year has led metal lovers to one head-banging inevitability – a live EP that ignores everything after 1988
The decision to let fans pick eight tracks from Metallica’s Trans-Tasman Tour last year has led metal lovers to one head-banging inevitability – a live EP that ignores everything after 1988. The second of a two-part set, the track listing on this disc details a ‘best of the best’ of Metallica’s songs. Blackened opens the EP, just as it opened …And Justice for All back in 1988. It still hits like a brick wall and shows Metallica in top form after what must seem like another eternity on tour. The crowd goes totally nuts, and for good reason.
Ride The Lightning remains another great track and Kirk’s solo still sounds awesome after more than 25 years. This recording is also a great example of how rock-solid a bassist Trujillo is. He adds an incredible amount of depth and strength to the rest of the band who are clearly giving it their all. There’s no chance of slowing down with age, it seems.
How else can you top this than by chomping into The Four Horseman from Kill ‘Em All? The song’s shifts in pace are outstanding enough to make you want to see the band all over again, immediately. And when the intro to Welcome Home (Sanitarium) rings out, the glory of the 80s all comes flooding back. Then there’s track five, Master Of Puppets. What? How good can you get? Kirk’s solo is on fire.
The fans have hit this collection spot-on, rounding out the EP with …And Justice for All (a nine-plus minute epic of guitar driven virtuosity), Fade To Black (a mournful, but splendid, self-indulgence), and Damage Inc. (metal up your arse!, as the old saying goes). The track list on this EP speaks volumes when you consider the ground-breaking corner of the Metallica back-catalogue it represents. The fans have voted loud and clear about which songs really count and which will always struggle to match the foundations of Metallica’s enduring career.
Essentially, this is a great EP. Sure, there are a few dud notes along the way, but they pale in the grand narrative that this recording brings to us; in any case only adding to the authenticity of the live recording. The EP even comes with a second disc holder (fitted with a cardboard CD substitute) to tease Metallica’s head-banging family into buying Part 1 of this live set.
The ‘fan-selected track list’ is an excellent strategy for ensuring high sales figures. But who cares? This ‘back to the front’ Metallica experience provides an awesome souvenir for thousands of fans who were there at the time.
