Finally "Ecstasy Of Gold" echoed around the Arena, the moment we had been waiting for had arrived. When ecstasy had finished we were waiting for Lars to run on stage but instead we got the intro to "That Was Just Your Life" The lasers darted across the mirrors and filled the arena with rainbowed light. After listening to it on the studio album for the past fair few months it felt like a good show was about to take place.

With Lars running onto the stage there is no better feeling then seeing all four boys on stage together, knowing they will and always do put on a great show from their hearts to all their fans. Kirk then breaking into the intro riff of "That Was Just Your Life" the whole song kicked off and what an awesome introduction. Next up they broke into "The End Of The Line" which is my favourite song off the Death Magnetic album, after that they then played "The Four Horsemen" which was great to hear at the start of the set rather than being played at the end. To me this meant they may have a surprise for us! Leper Messiah then One were superb but one of the highlights of the show came up next where we were beautifully looked after with "The Judas Kiss", this was a great adrenalin rush for us, for Metallica to play this for the first time ever, treating us with the world premier! Hearing the world premier of two songs from the same album is such a great feeling.

The boys carried on their heavy streak as they went back to 1990 for the Black Album to play us Sad But True. Still more excitement to come with an unexpected song, Metallica left us in for a big surprise when the intro to "No Leaf Clover" was played, another personal favourite song this was turning out to be the best show I had ever seen from Metallica. The boys carried on the World Magnetic Tour theme by playing "All Nightmare Long" And "The Day That Never Comes" which was their newest single to be released after being on most of the music channels and viewed by millions this went down very well with the crowd. These soon to be classics were followed by "Master Of Puppets" then onto our next surprise "Fight Fire With Fire"! Must have classics followed kicked off with "Nothing Else Matters" and "Enter Sandman". The most talked about part of the set was upon us, what wild cards would be thrown in? Tonights songs were Breadfan and Helpless which topped off the evening with Metallica fantastically, both classic covers and the band clearly enjoyed playing them as much as we enjoyed listening to them. Last up tonight what has become the staple last song and a great way to finish off any evening, the boys kicked straight into Seek And Destroy with James ordering the house lights on, we had a great view of Metallica and they had a great view of us. After catching my first ever plectrum I believed that is was my newest most favourite Metallica gig I had witnessed. Whilst walking out of the stadium everyone was on a high and very very happy with what we had all witnessed and all agreed on our favourite moments of the show.

If this was the first gig of many on the tour, then what more was to come?

Tom Allam 2009