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Metallica’s “Orion Music + More” Fest…very surprisingly successful and very positive experience all around!

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Whenever a huge metal festival happens, people would start worrying about things. People would worry about deaths, fighting in the audience or worse concert riots. Thankfully none of that happened at Metallica’s “Orion Fest + More”. The Fest was clearly about the music. All the fans there were there to see Metallica, but some of the Metallica fans did stick around to check out the other bands on the Festival though. I didn’t see any of the bands on the Festival except I did caught Lucero, yesterday, which I actually liked them.

Tonight’s Metallica set, they played the Black Album in it’s entirety. This time, they played right through the full album, song after song. Metallica still proves that they can do speed metal and they can still do it well. People are upset with them because they went alternative rock in the early 2000’s. Changing their genre completely. You see, I still like their alternative rock “St. Anger/Load/Reload” sound ’cause I admired the band wanting to move away from speed metal to do something different. Bands change and evolve. I like that.

The reason Metallica went back to speed metal at Orion fest ’cause it was a tribute to Cliff Burton. It’s what Cliff would have wanted, so they gave it to him. At the end of tonight’s set, there was a fan out in the audience holding up a very large poster of Cliff Burton, so Lars, walks out to the stage ramp to get a closer look at it, which was a pretty heartbreaking and sad moment. Metallica still loves Cliff, even to this day. The festival was all about Cliff really. I’m sure Cliff would have loved the festival himself if he was still alive today.

While Metallica killed it again tonight, I wish they would change up their ending to their sets. They keep playing the same encore songs, ending it with “Seek and Destroy” every concert. “Seek and Destroy”, is an amazing song, but it doesn’t always have to be the end song of a concert. Change it up some, boys! Metallica really are great live performers. They don’t fake anything with their playing. James doesn’t lip sync, he can really sing. I can tell ’cause they play the same songs differently each night. Different tempo, different feeling. Sometimes better than the night before.

The question we all have to ask is, what is their next new album is going to sound like? The follow up to “Death Magnetic”? Will, they finally redeem themselves and go back to speed metal like the fans wanted? While “Death Magnetic” was mostly speed metal, they still had quite a few songs on the record that were still, “Load/Reload” sounding. I’m hoping they’ll go back to thrash for their next album, but I doubt it. That’s the tough part about songwriting. You just play whatever comes out of you, doesn’t matter the genre. That’s one thing that fans don’t understand about music and songwriting. Your mind is like a radio, ya know? A songwriter hears original songs in his/her head all the time, and musicians write the songs to get it out of them. I’m sure fans want to see them go back to the genre they are known for but it’s all about the songwriting inspiration. Sometimes they can’t help writing out of the speed metal genre. That’s what being an artist is all about. And that’s another reason why I respect Metallica.

Kev

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Brock reviews Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” set at Orion Festival last night…

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Last night, I watched the live broadcast of Metallica’s thunderous set at Orion Festival on youtube. They played every single song from the “Ride the Lightning”, album like advertised! The album isn’t that long, it only has 8 songs on the album, so they had to mix in other hits from their other albums during their set. Last night’s set was a monster! WOW! Makes me wish I was at the show. Last night, was all old school Metallica, throughout their entire set. They played mostly their older material from “Kill ‘Em All”, “Lightning”, “And Justice For All” and of course, a few songs from the “Black Album”. This was by far, the best live performance I’ve seen by the guys.

At first, I was a little skeptical of Orion fest, but after watching some of it on youtube, the Fest actually looks kind of cool. Of course, Metallica’s set got the largest crowd more than any other band ’cause they’re Metallica. I didn’t watch any other bands on the Orion Fest, but I did catch Lucero which they are actually pretty decent.

On with Metallica, this is what everyone wants to see them as. Speed metal kings, and last night was all speed metal all the way through. They didn’t play anything from “St. Anger”, “Load/Reload”, “Death Magnetic” or, “Lulu”. Maybe they will play some of the newer stuff for tonight’s set but last night, it was a celebration of their 30 year career, most definitely. I respect Metallica for a lot of reasons. For one, they are the best live performers out there, and they know how to interact with the crowd onstage better than any other band. You can clearly tell, that Metallica really love their fans. After the set got over with, the band stuck around for a while, giving the audience in the front row high fives, throwing guitar picks out in the crowd, and Lars was throwing drum sticks into the crowd as well. It shows that they are really good guys.

Orion Fest, is a pretty successful Festival so far. I see them doing it again next year. Metallica deserves their own festival. Ozzy Osbourne created Ozzfest back in the day, which was a hit Festival. Perry Ferrell created Lollapalooza which that Festival is now legendary. Megadeth created “Gigantour”, which is also a hit.

The whole point of “Orion Fest & More”, is that Metallica wants to express themselves more to their fans. They want to show people what they do other than music. For example, James Hetfield loves cars and motorcycles, so he put on his own car and motorcycle show there. Lars Ulrich, is a big fan of Hollywood movies, so he put up his own Hollywood tent showing some of his favorite films, handpicked by the man himself. Kirk Hammett loves horror fiction, so he put up his own horror museum, called, “Kirk’s Crypt”, displaying all of his horror memorabilia and merchandise. As for Rob Trujillo, he reveals that he loves surfing so he uses the fest to show off his love for surfing and for him to go out surfing himself, of course. Rob also has a passion for skateboarding and there’s a little section at the fest where fans can skateboard at the skateboard ramp.

There are also all kinds of other museums and fun things to see and do. Kind of makes me wish I bought tickets to that Festival and went myself.

No matter what you think of Metallica, they are the kings of metal. I respect their history, their legacy they created, plus, I dig all of their music. You’re not a true Metallica fan if you just like their speed metal stuff only and not enjoy their new material. To be a true Metallica die hard, you MUST LIKE ALL OF THEIR MUSIC. Including the, “St. Anger/Load/Reload” stuff, which I do enjoy as well. These guys are monster songwriters. They are a big influence on my own songwriting as well.

Seeing Metallica for the first time myself live during the “Death Magnetic” tour a few years ago, meant a lot to me. I hope to see them live again.

Kev