METALLICA Performs Entire 'Black' Album For First Time Ever; Complete Setlist Revealed

METALLICA performed its top-selling 1991 LP, "Metallica", a.k.a. "the black album," in its entirety for the first time ever earlier tonight (Monday, May 7) at the opening show of the band's European tour at Synot Tip Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Hit The Lights

02. Master Of Puppets

03. The Shortest Straw

04. For Whom The Bell Tolls

05. Blackened

06. The Struggle Within

07. My Friend Of Misery

08. The God That Failed

09. Of Wolf & Man

10. Nothing Else Matters

11. Through The Never

12. Don't Tread On Me

13. Wherever I May Roam

14. The Unforgiven

15. Holier Than Thou

16. Sad But True

17. Enter Sandman

Encore:

18. Fuel

19. One

20. Seek & Destroy

Asked why METALLICA decided to play the "black" album in its entirety on the current tour, the band's drummer, Lars Ulrich, told Kerrang! magazine, "The people at [the U.K.'s] Download [festival] asked. It wasn't our idea."

He added, "The thing is, although we haven't played at Donington for six years, we have been to the U.K. pretty much every single summer since then. So they wanted us to do something different, and that's what they came up with. I quite like the fact that come [this] summer it'll be the 21st anniversary of the 'black album,' not the 20th."

Asked whether he and his bandmates would have to re-learn the two songs from the record — "Don't Tread On Me" and "The Struggle Within" — that METALLICA had never played live before, Lars said, "Yeah. Although to be honest with you, a song like 'The Struggle Within' is a lot easier to re-learn than 'The Frayed Ends Of Sanity'." He added, "I don't think it's going to be too difficult for us to figure out these songs."

During a recent interview with Spin, Lars was asked which METALLICA song he would take back if he could. "'Don't Tread On Me' has that shuffle vibe," Lars replied. "That's not my thing, but I don't wish to erase it from all 97 bazillion copies of the 'black' album."

"Metallica" in 2009 surpassed SHANIA TWAIN's 1997 record, "Come On Over", as the best-selling CD of the SoundScan era. To date, the black album has sold 15,772,000 copies in the United States.

Although METALLICA had scored their first radio and video airplay with their previous effort, 1988's "...And Justice For All", the black album was the band's biggest commercial breakthrough, producing five singles and making them into one of the most popular rock bands in the world.

Source:

http://roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/