Mojo - The Music Magazine

In the twenty five years that have elapsed since the release of their debut album, Kill ‘Em All, Metallica have become one of the biggest bands on the planet (sales to date: over 100 million albums), and yet they've rarely enjoyed any radio play in the UK other than on specialist rock shows. And even then, while drummer Lars Ulrich openly admired most of the bands that graced the late Tommy Vance’s Radio 1 Rock Show in the early ‘80s, his own band have yet to record a session for Britain’s venerable broadcasting institution. Tonight, however, sees Metallica celebrating the release of their ninth studio album, Death Magnetic, with a Sunday night show at the BBC Radio Theatre – an intimate 400-capacity venue located in the very heart of Broadcasting House.

While Metallica have famously always enjoyed seeing the whites of their audience eyes (previous low key London shows have included unannounced appearances at The 100 Club in 1987 and the new Marquee three years later), tonight they emerge on stage looking slightly nervy. Frontman James Hetfield stretches behind the amps, dons his game-face, clenches both fists and symbolically touches them against his guitar tech’s in a gesture more familiar to boxing aficionados. Then, as the picked intro to That Was Just Your Life pumps through the PA, he strolls out to the stage to a throaty roar from the assembled fans who appear genuinely stunned to see their heroes at such close quarters.

Your correspondent first saw Metallica up close when the youthful San Franciscan four-piece played their first UK show in March 1984. Back then, their unbridled sense of post-Motörhead thrash saw them largely pilloried by the press with weekly rag Sounds delivering a particularly scathing review of Kill ‘Em All. Over two decades later, however, and Metallica have returned to their initial thrash aesthetic in a bid to capture what Hetfield describes as “our musical essence.” The opening salvo of That Was Just Your Life proves as much, delivered at breakneck speed and with band members indulging in maximum gurning. The End Of The Line, the second new track of the evening, follows in suitably fast and furious fashion, Hetfield and guitarist Kirk Hammett loading up on the kind of riffs penned by Josh Homme during his time in Kyuss, and welding them to drummer Lars Ulrich’s trademarked staccato rhythms and bassist Robert Trujillo’s five-string undertow.

“A little taste of the new ‘Tallica! You like? You like?” asks Hetfield before picking the intro out to Load ballad Until It Sleeps. A track written by Hetfield about the loss of his parents to cancer, it is also tonight’s only sop to the notion of radio play. Indeed, rather than draw on FM friendly fodder (Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters or One), tonight is an exercise in bludgeon. Broken, Beat And Scarred, the third new track from Death Magnetic, underlines that fact, its eastern-styled riff dive-bombing into a thrashing morass that appears to leave the band gasping for breath.

“You sure we’re going to be able to play this live all the time?” asks Hetfield – a man of searing honesty who tonight looks increasingly like Tom Waits as redrawn by the Marvel comics team. Ulrich nods back and pumps his check in a suitably mock heroic fashion before breaking out into a broad grin. Before long, Metallica have launched into yet another new slice of crunching chaos, Cyanide. Frantic, a slice of heavy metal polka from 2003’s much pilloried St Anger, follows prior to the band’s descent into truly classic territory with For Whom The Bells Toll. A compelling piece of epic, precision metal it has lost none of impact since it emerged in 1984’s Ride The Lightning set. What is however missing is a sense of participation from the audience. In the past a track like For Whom The Bells Toll or Master Of Puppets (which stops and starts after an error this evening prompting Lars’s call for “Take two!”) have come close to sparking stage invasions. Tonight, the crowd are too obsessed with trying to capture shots of this intimate show on their camera phones to truly go hog-wild. It is a bizarre state of affairs which Hetfield will address the following evening, chastising the audience for filming the proceedings rather than enjoying the show when the band play a fan club show at London's 02 arena.

Indeed, the whole of tonight’s show has a sense of the surreal about it. At times it is akin to watching Metallica rehearsing at their HQ in San Rafael with concentration high on their agenda. Then there are moments where the stage appears simply too small for them. Either way, there is a sense of suspended animation about the proceedings. Then there’s the moment during the intro to the single The Day That Never Comes where Hetfield appears to mouth the words “That was crap!” to a faltering Ulrich and Trujillo…

After a final flurry of Blackened and an hour of sheer tumultuous thrashing, Metallica bring the curtain down on their visit to the BBC with mixed results. In truth, you sense that they would have preferred to have played a full set on their own terms rather than cut things this short. Indeed, in days gone by they most probably would have returned and played a further set to satisfy the gathered throng. Those days, it seems, are long gone. The thrash-fest that is Death Magnetic - which this evening crashes in at the top of the UK charts - proves that the band themselves have not forgotten them.

Tune into BBC Radio 1’s Metallica special tonight, September 15, from 7.00pm. The band’s live set is broadcast from 9.00pm.

PLUS! You can now hear the full gig and an interview with the band by heading over to www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 . It'll be online until Monday, September 22.