Live review: Metallica, Hampden Park, Glasgow

"I have the best job in the world," beams James Hetfield towards the end of this evening’s two-and-a-bit-hours of power. "After 45 years, Metallica is still blown away when we play a show and see this kind of love come from a city. You’re now part of the Metallica family – whether you like it or not. And you can't leave this family. Because we have friends who will hunt you down..."

Oddly menacing? Maybe. But not one of the 50,000-odd fans crammed into Hampden Park give a fuck. Metallica fever has gripped Glasgow this week. The pop-up shop with at the city's state-of-the-art Science Centre was heaving when it opened early yesterday morning and it’s been packed ever since. Thrash classics have been blasting in bars and out of shop windows across town. On the walk down to Scottish football's national stadium, you might even spot a few fans in custom yellow-and-black kilts styled after the distinctive artwork of latest album 72 Seasons.

The national team may have lost three-nil to Brazil at the World Cup in the early hours of this morning, but rather than letting it get them down, the Tartan Army's Home Guard appear to have continued festivities through the night, and come doors they’re gagging for a guaranteed winner.

"We are Knocked Loose," grins Bryan Garris at the absurdly early hour of 5:30pm, with a fiery sun still burning in the sky. "Are you ready to have some fun?"

There was a time when Metallica supports seemed to be perpetually stuck at half volume, but Kentucky's finest rattle Hampden from the eerie opening notes of Blinding Faith this evening. The scourging extremity of Don’t Reach For Me, Mistakes Like Fractures and Piece By Piece aren’t to the taste of some ageing fans, or the many here attending their first ever heavy show, but good. They’re all the sweeter for it.

"There's nothing that we love more than a mosh-pit," Bryan grins, whipping up about a dozen right round the stage for Moss Covers All. Elsewhere, with Denzel Curry and Poppy's parts on tape, Hive Mind and Suffocate are slightly less-than dominating today. Thankfully, the awesome run-in of Counting Worms, Deep In The Willow and Everything Is Quiet Now return things to godlike levels of shock and awe. "When I say 'Knocked Loose!'" Bryan orders, "you say 'Motherfucker!'" Blood spilt already, it’s hard to argue with that.

Gojira have been a band for 30 years now, but they've still got the excitement of wide-eyed youngsters opening for their childhood heroes. Compared to the sheer blunt force of Knocked Loose, the French giants take longer to find their groove. The complex sharp edges of Born For One Thing and Backbone dulled a little by the booming stadium sound. Silvera fares better, and by the time old favourite Love gets an airing and the weird, watery intro to Flying Whales opens out into its fathomless main riff, thousands have fully dived in.

"Fun fact about Gojira and Glasgow," laughs Joe Duplantier. "Our 666th show was here, one of the great rock cities of Europe." This is quite unlike any gig they've played in this part of the world before, though. Joe's drummer brother Mario somehow gets in even more cardio than normal, sprinting between kits on opposite sides of the circular stage. Then Swiss-French mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti pops in to add her flair to their Olympic Games collaboration Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!), before coming back out to supercharge The Chant. It's the elemental weight of closer Amazonia that proves their credentials as heirs to tonight’s headliners, though. Having ironed out the mix and found their flow, it is the sound of metallic greatness.

Metallica remain the gold standard, though, and they don’t take long cranking it up. From the moment AC/DC banger It's A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll) blares over the PA the crowd is in an electric frenzy. Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy Of Gold edges them further. Then an outrageous opening salvo of Creeping Death, For Whom The Bell Tolls and Hit The Lights sees them explode.

Halfway through the band’s fifth decade, it hardly needs to be said that when Metallica floor it, there is no-one who can compete. But the energy and violence in the Scottish crowd, a blur of pumped fists, hurtling pits and Glasgow kisses, elevates them further here.

Even the less obvious moments go down a storm. Thirty years since its release, King Nothing has arguably the biggest sing-along of the night. 72 Seasons (the only ‘new’ song aired) is even more wild and unwieldy than it sounded three years ago, but at 100mph it’s impossible not to be swept along. Even Rob and Kirk Hammett’s loveably shambolic ‘doodle’, a mash-up of Nazareth’s Hair Of The Dog and The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), ends up with the whole place stomping loudly along.

And as they roll on towards the set’s more predictable second half, magic moments keep popping up. There’s Papa Het plucking out a quiet, mournful melody before launching into a gleefully high-octane, flame-wreathed Fuel to prove there's banter beneath his mostly stony exterior. Kirk picks out the twangy melody of emotional highlight The Unforgiven right as the sun dips beneath the rim of the stadium roof. Seeing Lars Ulrich stand up from his drum kit during Nothing Else Matters to conduct the Snake Pit like an orchestra can’t help but raise a smile. Then Rob somehow drifts messianically over the heads of that churning den of vipers right in the middle of Sad But True.

After which, there’s that magnificent closing run. During their no-repeat weekends, One, Seek & Destroy, Master Of Puppets and Enter Sandman are divvied out across two shows, but they land together for Glasgow’s one night stand. It's an absurd, endorphin-spiking run of all-time classics.

The place duly comes unglued, with tears in eyes and the sort of limb-flinging disregard for personal safety that you’re not supposed to get from bands of this age, size or universal renown. ‘No Scotland, no party!’ is ringing from the stands as the curtain finally drops. And as James and the lads throw the horns one last time, there’s no denying Caledonia’s crushers raised the game. Simply awesome, Metallica are still in a class of their own.

Metallica play Cardiff Principality Stadium on June 28 and the London Stadium on July 3 and 5.

Read this next:

• “I’ve never seen anything like that since…”: The story of Metallica’s Master Of Puppets
• Inside Gojira's new metal masterpiece… and their fight for our future
• Knocked Loose: “It’s just crazy… I could literally talk for hours about how grateful I am to be in the position that we are”