Even though I wasn’t planning to give Metallica’s huge box set
\nanother glance, I put this box set in my CD player and VCR this
\nweekend. Instantly, I remembered why this was a dream come true
\nwhen it was released in 1993.<\/p>\n
My wife bought this for my birthday. I have to say that it
\nachieves what it was after: freezing the band for a moment in time
\nin what had been their most successful and popular state of their
\ncareer. They had “Nothing Else Matters” played at weddings, they
\nhad Grammys, they had a powerhouse show that rocked the world.
\nRiding high. Never mind the details, 30,000 feet above ground and
\nall looks good.<\/p>\n
The CDs and two of the videos capture the band at different
\npoints of their tour. The San Diego video is from the beginning of
\nthe tour, the CDs are from one of their last dates on the tour. So,
\nthe band achieved what they wanted, which was to capture the band,
\nas a well-oiled machine in the midst of what had been their most
\ngueling tour to date.<\/p>\n
But, wait, there’s more.<\/p>\n
Metallica includes a video from the
\n…And Justice for All<\/i> tour and put that in the box set. The
\nJustice tour was an amazing site. The lighting rig swings down,
\nstage props explode, I don’t want to ruin it for you. The band’s
\nintense material was a flexing of musical masterpieces in waiting.
\nSo you end up with a monster three-video, three-CD release, or, in
\nessence, an exercise in endurance. Just how much Metallica can you
\nendure in a sitting?<\/p>\n
Can you sit through three Metallica concerts, back to back? To
\nthis day, I find it an achievement to do so. There is a lot of
\nmaterial to cover, so I’ll gloss over what doesn’t work, like the
\namazingly long “Seek and Destroy” on CD 2 with a bunch of people
\n“helping” to sing the words “Seek and Destroy” that may work when
\nyou see Hetfield intermingling with the crowd but, without that
\nelement, this song gets long and boring. Then there’s starting the
\nthird CD with the “Nothing Else Matters” ballad. Why? Why? Why not
\nmake the second CD end with a ballad so the first track of each CD
\ncan start with an upbeat rock song? (They later repeated this
\nmistake by opening CD 2 of
\nS&M<\/i> with this song.)<\/p>\n
So let’s go to the positive. In chronological order, the only
\nplace to begin is the Seattle concert video, which was recorded in
\n1989. To clear the air, I am a huge, huge, huge
\nJustice<\/i>-era fan. The Seattle video is perfect, mainly
\nbecause I enjoy the material so much. I can’t say a single negative
\nword about this video. I can watch it repeatedly. To me, the band
\nhad hit their creative high and tracks like “Blackened” and
\n“Harvester of Sorrow” intertwined with “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
\nand “Master of Puppets” give me a kick in the ass.<\/p>\n
Next up is the two videos from the San Diego gig. If you’ve seen
\nthe video for “Whiplash” (yes, there was a video for this song that
\nactually got played on MTV), you’ve seen part of this concert. What
\nyou didn’t see is Ulrich switching drum sets during the interlude
\nof “The Four Horsemen,” Hetfield trying to do a drum battle, in the
\nclassic Buddy Rich\/Gene Krupa style, with Ulrich, and Ulrich’s
\nundying ego as he says, more than once, “Check this shit out.”
\nTranslation: “I think this part of our show is really cool, you
\nwill to.” There’s something to be said for “action” not words.
\nHammett plays his guitar solo with a pre-recorded rhythm guitar and
\nUlrich, which sounds cool, but the whole guitar solo\/drum solo
\nsection gets long. The band is better when they are seen looking at
\neach other and smiling. The only thing I don’t understand about
\nthis San Diego concert is why Hetfield has to resort to “I can’t
\nhear you” cliches. He would be a much better front man without
\nconstantly saying “C’mon you mother f*ckers, let’s go!” As a group,
\nthe band is as tight musically as they could ever be.<\/p>\n
But wait, there’s more.<\/p>\n
That statement is disproved when you get to the three CD concert
\nfrom Mexico City at the end of the same tour. After being on the
\nroad for a long long time, the band sounds like they are on
\nauto-pilot. That can be good or bad, depending on your perspective.
\nOn one hand, they are playing their material tight. Ulrich’s
\ndrumming is dead-on, especially during “Sad but True” and the
\nJustice For All<\/i> medley. Hammett’s playing on the master
\nmaterial, like “Whiplash” and the encores “No Remorse” and
\n“Motorbreath” are insprired. You get a glimpse of the band’s sense
\nof humor when they launch into “Ride the Lightning” and the song
\nfalls apart. It’s obvious they hadn’t practiced that one for
\nawhile. Then there’s the cover of Danzig’s “Last Caress” and the
\nimpromptu “So What.”<\/p>\n
But wait, there’s more.<\/p>\n
The box set also comes with a large booklet. This booklet is a
\ncollection of set lists, media schedules, behind-the-scenes
\nplanning regarding what the next single should be, and, my
\nfavorite, an invitation from a fan for the band to come to his
\nhouse for Thanksgiving. It gives fans a new perspective of all the
\ndecisions the band has to make and all the interviews with the
\nmedia the band had to do. There’s also the “scary guy” stencil
\nwhich adds no value to this box set.<\/p>\n
I grew tired of this box set a couple of years ago. I stopped
\nlistening to it routinely a while back and put the CDs or videos in
\nnow when I want to remember what it was like in 1993. You have to
\nremember that their self-titled release was the number one record
\nfor a zillion weeks in a row, their videos were played non-stop on
\nMTV, they orchestrated a huge tour with Guns-n-Roses and Faith No
\nMore, and they played Moscow. This box set captures their finest
\nmoments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5706],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37621","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-metallica","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37621"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}