This is the third Dublin outdoor appearance in three years by the hardest-working men in metal. Still, that's a cause for celebration rather than complaint for fans: the ever-loyal crowd at the RDS are clearly showing no sign of Metallica fatigue just yet.
After such extensive touring, the elder statesmen of rock are as tightly wound and primed as ever for the road. New-ish bassist Robert Trujillo has settled in nicely too; rather than roaming the stage like a lost salamander as he did in 2004, he has become a knotted ball of pent-up energy.
So how is a band supposed to keep things interesting after so long on the road? As this year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the landmark Master Of Puppets, Hetfield advises the crowd to “consider themselves very special” as they’re treated to a track-by-track performance of the opus which, natch, starts with the lurching juggernaut of ‘Battery’. ‘Master Of Puppets’, too, is frenzied and tautly maniacal, even if it does clock in at a slightly tedious 8 ½ minutes. Ultimately, it’s the performing of the darkly complex ‘Orion’ that really delights newcomers and long-standing members of the Metallica family alike.
In a move that almost borders on self-parody, Hetfield invites his eight-year-old daughter Callie onstage, for a quick rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. It’s a touching move that seems at odds with the bloodied and brutal delivery of ‘Disposable Heroes’ or ‘Leper Messiah’ (Some Kind Of Monster? Big Cuddly Papa Bear, more like).
Of course, an arsenal of crowd-pleasers are shoehorned in before the curfew: ‘Sad But True’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’, ‘One’ and ‘Enter Sandman’ are pelted at the crowd with sufficient zeal and power, as was their obligatory performance of ‘Whiskey In The Jar’.
In all, it was a crisp evening packed with a vicious, visceral energy and more anthems than you could shake a stick at. But there was also a nagging sense of déjà vu...