What a concert, eh? And let’s start with this what everybody’s keen to know – Metallica. How were they? Amazing! Smiling, pleased, big and bold. What did they play? Classics, man. Songs that made you shit in your pants from headbanging as a student. Songs that when you’re 30 or 40 still make you scream and bang your head. To start with "Creeping Death" and finish with "Seek and Destroy". And in the middle was everything else that you need to make you exclaim after “What a concert!”. Plus some very pleasant surprises. "Fuel"? Surprise. And it remained the only track after “The Black Album”. "Stone Cold Crazy"? Big surprise. And after the shock – jump. Queen a la Hetfield and co. And a warm welcoming from the great crowd. Over 45 thousands people applauded the bands. Who said 50? And yes, I know that the stubborn ones that haughty skipped the show of “this trite band” in fact are sorry that they did not give their mulish. Well, you have to be. Actually, shit on yourselves, you have missed amazing happening.

And a bit earlier. In 6.30 PM, surprisingly the gates of the 70s got open. And there rushed “winter’s wolves” and “iron swans”. In the moment you look at the stage and you see two sets of orange amps "Orange" it makes clear that there will be fuzz and groove. And the four young Texans of The Sword laid their lead hymns for bloody battles in times of pagans. Heavy, inspired, bearing the heritage of the early Black Sabbath but played in the years when there exists such a beast like “stoner metal”; the guitars are growling low and the vocals fire their stoned couplets. And in spite of the fact that maybe over 90% of the audience didn’t have any idea what they see and hear, the guys jammed energetic, thanked and slaughtered us on parting with the hymn of the pagan Nordic goddess Freya. Great band, with a lot of potential and two albums behind. I frankly hope their shows with Metallica to contribute for their dividends.

And while I’m making these thoughts, the stage got empty, rearranged and at the bottom there appeared the bald head of Kirk Windstein. Here they are, the five NOLA leaders stepped on their constant carpets and they hailed… the Leaf. Smoke! Stoned! And the hail was returned. Almost sucked joint flew to me and the smoke was spilled in the crowd. More adequate shouts, the first moshing for the evening and Anselmo sang his revelations in "Lifer". Down live! Holy fuck! The massive riffs, the sincere and strong lyrics, the deep voice of Phil, the rhythm of Louisiana from Jimmy and Rex… in few meters of us. Huge! And after the promise to return for their own gig, they drove us straight to the humid bluesy heat of the South with “Stone The Crow”. The lead sky dropped tears for Dime, bearing the clouds of some lost Orleans hurricane and on the stage the blizzard slowly and heavy buried us in smoke.

And Metallica stood before us exactly in 9 PM all the preliminary doubts were stuck directly with metal up the ass. James sang great. And he played great. And played with the public, with fingers and with pick. Kirk was smiling, Lars was sweating and Trujillo was monkeying around while he was nailing the foundations of “Master Of Puppets”, “And Justice For All” or “Leper Messiah”. Without too much talking, shot by shot, out of the loudspeakers straight to the hearts of the thousands. The great illuminations preceded “One”, James shared “Nothing Else Matters” with the crowd during which the stadium was washed in light… of lighters and digital sources while all these throats sang in multithousand choir, embraced, happy and devoted. And the musicians with obvious pleasure hung the tricoulour on the drums.

No, there wasn’t any showing off, false cues or lack of presence. Metallica stood before us, jammed manly and made a two-hours show proper to titans as they are. Two hours, two small and a huge screens, a killer show and four people whom 25 years on stage made strong and what they are now. A legend. So, what about the concert?

Written by: Ivailo Alexandrov

Pictures of Down: Assen Tonev

Pictures of Metallica: Yassen Nemski

You can check out our new full gallery of pictures from the concert here