METALLICA
Sonisphere Festival
Snowhall Parc - Amneville, France
July 9 2011

The last band to play at the Sonisphere Festival was here. The last one of the Big Four: Metallica!

Let's be honest, no matter which opening bands would have played, the festival only needed to announce Metallica as headliners to get the whole thing sold-out.
Or almost sold-out.

But tonight we were not here to party only with Metallica, but also with Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and the other bands at the Sonisphere.

After the Intro The Ecstasy Of Gold, Metallica started with an unbelieavable tune: Hit The Lights!

That was just incredible! They celebrated the glorious Kill'em All from the begining! It's been years, maybe even a couple of decades, since the last tiime this happened...

More surprises came on the setlist, like The Shortest Straw, another seldomly played song.

And what about Seek & Destroy as the first song?
For years, this tune has been the last one at their gigs!

What other surprise do they have for us? Which one will be the last song?

But the climax came with The Call Of Chtulu!

Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I'll hear this song in concert.
The lights were quite dark and the whole band was very concentrated while playing it.
It was a solemn and almost religious moment.

Worth to note, the song Nothing Else Matters was not played, and that's good news!
Don't get me wrong, I love this song, but they always play it, and I really salute the fact that they exchanged this good old "hit" for another song.

James Hetfield did a few speeches about the Big Four. He stated that Metallica was very proud to be part of this tour.
At last, I would say! Since Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax had already toured together in the past!

James also talked about Metallica's birthday... An amazing 30 years in 2011!

For the encores we all were expecting the moment of the jam. Something like what they did for the Big Four DVD in 2010.

I saw the Big Four in Romania in 2010 and there was no jam but here... Brian Tatler from Diamond Head and the guys from Anthrax (including Sepultura's Andreas Kisser) joined Metallica on stage.

They played the song Helpless, an absolute Diamond Head classic.
T o be honest, there were mixed feelings of excitement and disapointment.

This was the last European date of the Big Four in 2011 and the only one where Slayer and Megadeth did not participate on the jam.
Both bands had gigs far away the next day. I really can't figure out why they book gigs the day following the end of such a special tour!

But let's not complain! We didn't have a jam with the whole Big Four (which might happen again), but we did had a rare jam with Diamond Head!

Metallica gave us a Speed Thrash dosis to end the festival, with an incredible version of Damage Inc.
The concert ended with a song that sometimes is an opener: Creeping Death.

Well, it was in incredible day! All bands did great shows and Metallica was perfect.
As for the organization of the Sonisphere Festival, they still have a lot to learn...

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Setlist Metallica – Snowhall Parc - Amneville, France – July 9 2011

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