First band who got the perform was Trivium. The place was only filled half which caused enormous echos. So the sound was pretty bad. Besides that I couldn’t hear any of the solos Matt Heafy (frontman Trivium) did. Still they rocked like hell and showed us that headbanging is still cool. They asked the audience to clap for the other bands. Well of course Metallica got the loudest applause. I can understand that it was a bit disappointing for Trivium to be the opening act that day. Still, they showed us nothing of disappointment though. Their show in two words……… pure metal!!

 

About an hour later Bullet For My Valentine got on stage. They look so young, especially the bass player. They've gotten pretty big in a really short time which must have created loads of experience now. The show they gave was really good. Too bad they played song after song without using nice changes in between. Only songs of their debut got played (and “Hands of Blood”). I was a bit curious about some new material but it looks that we have to wait a little bit longer for that. Again the sound wasn’t good. I couldn’t hear the vocals clear enough. The sound only got a bit better during Metallica’s show. Again a short but stunning set.

 

Then Avenged Sevenfold conquered the place. For the first time that night fancy lighting was used. Some show off guys they are. I’d heard that Matt Shadows (frontman A7X) got operated on his vocal chords. Well, it looked like that operation succeeded. They opened with “Unholy Confessions” and from that moment on it was just one big show. And people enjoyed it. Especially when they covered Pantera's “Walk”. That was just awesome. They really kept the song original with flawless solo and everything. Sure the guitar player was skilled but not sure if his one-man show in the end was the right thing to do. They ended their performance with one of their ‘hit singles’ named “Bat country”. Again, the third great show of that night!

 

And then…finally…after a long time…Metallica! All clear that this was the band everybody came for. The Gelredome now got stuffed with people all going crazy. For the first time that night the video screens next to the stage were used. Flashes of the movie The Good, The Bad And The Ugly  introduced the band that conquered the hearts of millions of people. I saw little children with their daddies walking by that night. Students that normally hang out with their society club. People older then 50 years with mullets and leather pants on. There’s so much variety in the type Metallica fans. That alone is great!  

 

When they got on stage I was a little surprised by their looks. Lars Ulrich (drummer) almost had a mullet going on…and James Hetfield (vocals/guitar) had a beard that made him look like a goblin. It looked like they got old…

 

The sound just got a little better but still wasn’t all that. Metallica has the privilege that everything they do almost instantly gets appreciated. I think that the show they gave that night wasn’t the best show ever. They made (especially for such a big band) a lot of mistakes. Playing guitars that aren’t tuned right. Lars even didn’t drum that tight. Still they could impress people with their well known solo’s.

 

They first played some old classics and even one new nameless song. After that they played the entire Master Of Puppets album. Maybe because Kerrang! just released the Remastered album with all Metallica songs covered by other bands. Anyway, that was pretty cool. Though I also would’ve liked it when they would have played some more songs from Justice For All and other albums. Well, they did end with “Sad But True” and the classic "Nothing Else Matters” (which was totally awesome to hear live…). During “One” there was even a little bit of firework.