Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany26th May 2024
Metallica - “M72 World Tour - No Repeat Weekend” - Special Guests: Ice Nine Kills, Five Finger Death Punch
OK, maybe the idea of having a one-day break between the shows was not a bad one at all - at least from a personal perspective, the itch to join 65,000 other fans for another round of audio-visual overstimulation was much bigger on Sunday than compared to the day before. And the hype knew no bounds...
Ice Nine Kills
This time it was the Boston Horrorcore band’s task of opening up the evening. Seems ICE NINE KILLS (or INK, as fans call them), have used the recent years for a profound makeover. Back in 2018 they were opening for MOTIONLESS IN WHITE in a small concert hall, so getting on stage with METALLICA is what you can call a decent upgrade. www.iceninekills.com
Music & Performance
When ICE NINE KILLS took to the stage again at 6pm, it was notably fuller than last Friday. And they used their time in the spotlight in the best way possible. Besides their Metalcore infused with horror-inspired lyrics, the band upgraded their wardrobe. Singer Spencer Charnas wore a grey suit, white shirt, and tie with black gloves, which - paired with Ray Bans - made for a sleek “American Psycho” look. The band also brought manifold requisites, such as axes and butcher knives, which Spencer used to cut off the limbs from a fake torso strapped to an office chair. On top of this, a bunch of performance artists enacted all kinds of classic horror movie scenes during the songs, which involved zombies chasing a girl, and then the girl with artful axe swings killing off the zombies one by one, or hillbillies swinging chainsaws - you get the idea. This made for some solid Sunday afternoon entertainment, and the large crowd was definitely engaged, as the singer departed after 30 minutes with ‘Rest in f*cking pieces’. I just fear that the parents who were there with their small kiddies had some explaining to do afterwards.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8 / 10
Five Finger Death Punch
Next up on the roster were America’s knuckleheads No.1: FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH (or FFDP). The band from Las Vegas formed in 2005 and rose quickly to fame with their debut ‘The way of the fist’ from 2007, achieving rapid success. This certainly took a toll and the mental health of the band members, resulting in some member departures and in one or the other tabloid headline and band hiatus. However, they came round every time, and their ninth release ‘Afterlife’ from 2022 confirmed that they still got it in them. http://fivefingerdeathpunch.com
Music & Performance
So, it seems METALLICA are not the only band using AC/DC songs for their march into the arena. For FFDP it was ‘Balls to the Wall’, to which the band members walked the cordoned off way through the crowd to the stage like the gladiators they are. Then before FFDP actually appeared on stage, a Viking like sounding hymn together with Icelandic sounding “A-hu” chants resounded over the speakers, during which a visibly hyped singer Ivan Moody stormed on stage and took a first lap run on the large circular stage. The band kicked off their set with ‘Lift me up’, and the nearly full stadium responded with roaring applause, which had a mesmerizing effect on the singer, who couldn’t help but to let out ‘Holy Shit!’ multiple times while looking into the vast round of excited fans. This continued throughout the 45-minute set. Ivan continued to race the stage, taking videos with fan phones or signing some memorabilia, all while delivering the lyrics in a powerful fashion. The rest of the band also did not fail to deliver, pumping out the musical foundation in a spectacular fashion. The powerful cover ‘The house of the Rising Sun’ did its magic to turn the entire audience into converts, so in the end it seemed that the Venn diagram of the Knucklehead family (as Ivan lovingly calls his fans) and the METALLICA family is in fact one circle.
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8.5 / 10
Metallica
A “quick” pre-concert visit to the band’s pop-up store, situated next to Porsche Consulting’s office and a Ferrari dealership in a newly gentrified area of Munich confirmed that, as literally hundreds of people queued for hours to get the chance to spend their money on all sorts of METALLICA branded stuff. But kudos to the marketing team of Somersby to hand out cooled cans of their cider in all sorts of obscure flavours. The fans queuing in the sun enjoyed it, and a slight tipsiness helped with one or the other spontaneous buying decision, once they made it into the store, so that’s what I call a win-win situation. But other than that, the conditions for the second coming of the biggest Metal band in the world could not have been better. So, encore une fois: The coveted second day of the ‘No Repeat’ - weekend arrived. https://www.metallica.com
Music & Performance
“Same procedure as last Friday” sprang to mind, as exactly again around 8:45pm AC/DC’s ‘It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll)’ announced the arrival of the Four Horsemen. Then again, the western scene from ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ appeared, and this time - again - die-hard fans were delighted as opened their set with ‘Creeping Death’ from the epic 1984 milestone album ‘Ride the Lightning’. A visibly high-spirited James grinningly told the audience that the band had ordered some clear skies for tonight and that he was glad “someone’s cooperating”. He then introduced ‘Hit the Lights’ as the first song him and Lars had put together “back in 1883”. So, with James casually joking on the stage it became clear that the band really enjoyed moments like this. And the weather was indeed much nicer than during the preceding gig. The never-ending artistic creativity of Robert and Kirk found an outlet in a special Bavarian cover jam of ‘Rosamunde’, during which Robert bravely sang and mastered the German lyrics.
Besides setlist staples like ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’, or ‘Wherever I may roam’, the setlist also contained a few rarely or never-before played gems, such as ‘Inamorata’, a song which James professed his deep love for. The evening inevitably culminated in an infernal war-simulation with lights, thunder and fireworks for the epic ‘One’, and the evening closed off with ‘Enter Sandman’, which had 65,000 people screaming “Exit light, enter night” in unison. Due to the strict Munich curfew rules (and the band’s late start), all screams for an encore were unheeded, but also this time the fans near the stage got their obligatory shower of guitar plectrums, and the crowd was sent off by James’ “until next time”. The next option for your treat is on June 1st at RACINO ROCKS in Ebreichsdorf near Vienna.
Setlist
01. Creeping Death
02. Harvester of Sorrow
03. Hit the Lights
04. Ride the Lightning
05. 72 Seasons
06. If Darkness Had a Son (followed by Kirk & Rob doodle ‘Rosamunde’)
07. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
08. Inamorata (live debut)
09. The Call of Ktulu
10. No Leaf Clover
11. Wherever I May Roam
12. Moth Into Flame
13. Fight Fire With Fire
14. Breadfan (Budgie cover) (tour debut)
15. One
16. Enter Sandman
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 10
Light: 9
Total: 9.5 / 10
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