Metallica recently celebrated their 40th anniversary with a pair of sold-out shows at the Chase Center in San Francisco. For the first show, Metallica performed tunes from every album in chronological order from oldest to latest. For the second, the band reversed it from latest to oldest, but both nights featured some surprises. The band played “Fixxxer”, taken from 1997’s “Reload,” for the first time. The two-day set also included some lesser-played live material including “Trapped Under Ice” (from 1984’s “Ride the Lightning”), “The Shortest Straw” (from 1988’s “…And Justice for All”) and “Frantic” (from 2003’s “St. Anger”). In the last two weeks, Metallica has released four pro-shot videos from the shows, “Dirty Window,” “The End of the Line,” “King Nothing,” and “Fixxxer,” with more likely to come.
“We are grateful that you have been along with us for 40 years, and we are so happy that you’re here still after all this time,” frontman James Hetfield told the audience at one point during the set. “It still blows my mind. Because we were created to do this. I know it.”
Also recently, the life of late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was celebrated with a “Cliff Burton Day” livestream on what would have been the icon’s 60th birthday, on Feb. 10. The event featured appearances from Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Mike Bordin (Faith No More) and others. The legendary bassist also got the ReAction figure treatment from Super 7, which was made available Feb. 10 at Super7.com. Burton met his tragic end in a tour bus crash on Sept. 27, 1986 while Metallica was on tour in Sweden. He joined Metallica in 1982 and famously would not relocate to Los Angeles, so the band moved to San Francisco to accommodate him.
Since forming in 1981, Metallica has sold around 120 million albums worldwide, garnered nine Grammy Awards and earned a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
