Metallica made their name as the thrash-metal greats, and later turned into one of the world’s biggest rock and roll bands. But they’re more recently known for ratting out Napster users who downloaded their tracks without paying, meaning they’ll surely be sent to the part of Heaven where they keep the poachers and mimes.
Yet they’re now paying off their karmic debt with an ongoing series of free downloads of concert recordings. A new addition to the Vault section of Metallica.com is a Cleveland show from the Agora, December 18, 1983. The 90-minute, two-disc set downloads as 14 mp3 files, 56 MB total. Though Ride the Lightning, their major-label debut, wasn’t out yet, the set list is pretty much their first two albums. Frontman James Hetfield’s between-song banter alone makes the download totally worth it: Click here for a metal storm…
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2008.
my second show was metallica’s Load tour at gund arena in 1996. i waited in line at the stop ‘n shop in rocky river for over an hour and a half (remember when ticketmaster outlets were in person?) to make sure my friends and i got tickets.
front row, upper level. was awesome.
“i got to love Metallica through my new friends (its a shame that so late for my 24 years of age) and they are just cool! I get a kick out of their performance! Waiting for the new album
by the way i got myself a new sound system to be able to enjoy their lyrics”