Metallica

Do you like your rock shows huge, loud & engaging? Do you like stage sets that fill entire arena floors, filled with gigantic set pieces & enough pyro to blow up a small country? Do you like singing along to tightly played, iconic songs for 2-3 hours with thousands of friends? If yes, Metallica are your guys.

Each show starts when The Ecstasy of Gold (theme song from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) plays over the PA, and crowd anticipation hits a fever pitch with thousands shouting along with the melody. Just thinking about the opening gives me goosebumps. Once Ecstasy hits its crescendo, they hit the stage like a thunderbolt, hammering through their lineup of classic tunes to a screaming, fist pumping, metal-sign-throwing crowd. Grizzled metal fans join together with legions of kids (oftentimes their own kids), shouting out every word of every song, and even singing along with guitar solos & melodies. Their set list varies each night. There are standards that they have to play, and you'll of course hear plenty of their big songs such as Enter Sandman and Master of Puppets. But they mix things up extremely well and no two nights are ever quite the same. It's amazing to me that after 30+ years and thousands of shows, the guys in the band still love mixing things up, still love goofing around on stage, still love engaging with the crowd, and obviously just love playing live & generating crazy crowd energy.

Quite simply, they are the kings of arena metal. Bow to the kings!

Every Metal-head craves to experience a Pantera concert. Unfortunately, an entire generation of fans haven’t had the privilege to witness the band who lead us out of the hairspray/glam rock era into a darker and satisfyingly sinister time in rock. This was my revelation after Pantera’s July 2001 show in Dallas, ground zero for the band and their heavy, groove metal style they pioneered.
The hot summer air hung heavy in the sweltering outdoor arena, a perfect setting for the hellacious show Pantera would perform. In front of a wall of amplifiers and pulsating lights, they started the set with "Hellbound," the opening track from their most recent release 'Reinventing the Steel.' Not letting up for a single breath they launched straight into "5 Minutes Alone and Slaughtered," before even addressing the raucous crowd. Sweat poured and unwashed hair whipped. Mosh pits devoured and long term hearing was compromised. Phil Anselmo worked every inch of the massive outdoor stage that evening as Dimebag Darrell (in his final Dallas performance - R.I.P.) soared through solo after solo.
With the confidence of true rock stars, they saved "Cowboys from Hell" and "Walk" for the encore, leaving the crowd in an absolute fervor state. Little did this hometown crowd know that it would be last chance to see Pantera’s for more than a decade. Today we understand the importance of Pantera but it took the benefit of historical perspective to be sure. It’s in retrospect that we fully grasp the impact of Pantera on Metal and their place in rock history. Hopefully you too can smile to yourself and know that you witnessed Metal royalty.

Saw them at Rockville this year. Was impressed by their stage show. Saw them last nite in Montgomery Alabama. Small venue but it didnt matter to Avatar. They brought a bunch of energy and were amazing. If you get a chance to see them.....go do it. You won't be disappointed.