"Am I the only one who thinks that we shouldn't only come down to Kuala Lumpur once every 31 fucking years?" said the ever-entertaining Lars Ulrich, drummer and co-founder of the legendary METALLICA. He was addressing a crowd of about 30,000 Malaysians (and some tourists and foreigners) crammed into the historic Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur. What a view he must have had, with the stage was facing the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, a staple of the Malaysian skyline. 31 years after METALLICA's first EP, they are still on the road, as loud and fast as ever, reducing their audiences to tears at the very sight of their godlike showmanship, with Malaysian Metalheads finally getting to taste what it means to have seen METALLICA live, and it sure as hell means the world.

It is 16:00 at Stadium Merdeka and the entire road up Jalan Maharajalela is already swamped with concert goers, vendors who have set up stalls all along the sidewalk, and cars parked illegally, with drivers defiantly refusing to spend 20 RM (Our local currency) for parking when they've already forked out so much money for the concert. There are already people decked in all black, queuing up devotedly since 14:00. At 18:00, the gates opened and the fans sprint to the front of their respective zones in the stadium, barely able to contain their bubbling excitement.

Nearly two hours later, Malaysian Thrash Metal legends CROMOK grace the stage in their first performance together in 16 years, ripping the place apart with their harsh and dark take on Thrash Metal. They spent most of their setlist jamming and going into musical interludes, which I thought was a perfect starter to the evening. Why drain everybody out with two-minute Thrash biters when everyone can bop along together in the rhythmic goodness of old school CROMOK? The band finishes in 30 minutes, and this is where it gets good. METALLICA is supposed to come on at 21:00, and already fans are going nuts.

"I will piss myself if they play Blackened!" / "I will get down on my knees in worship!". Before we knew it, AC/DC's "Long Way to the Top" started playing. By the end of the five-minute song, I'm already lost in thought, until the defining "Ecstasy Of Gold" blasts the stadium to live. The silence which followed was the loudest ever in our anticipation, until the screams of fans broke it permanently. Ulrich is the first one on stage, followed by Hammett, then Trujillo, and finally, Hetfield. They go straight into the intro for "Hit the Lights".

It's only 20:45. Already I'm headbanging myself silly, delighted that they chose to begin the show with their oldest song. The fans chant along mercilessly. It's almost as if every single person in the stadium knew every single lyric to every single song. In terms of headbanging and moshing, the crowd was rather subdued in typical Malaysian fashion. Much like the Japanese and Chinese, we prefer to offer polite applause and observe, with the occasional screaming and hooting. We were loud as hell though, and even though moshing and headbanging was kept to a minimum, especially due to tight security, we made sure our voices would be louder than METALLICA's already louder-than-war sound. The level of dedication was overwhelming. Whenever Hetfield fist-pumped at the chorus, we subserviently followed, straining our vocal chords to top the vicious, booming bass of Trujillo and Ulrich in an effort to make our voices as loud as possible, to make an impression on METALLICA. And it worked. "Kuala Lumpur, you're pretty damn loud," Hetfield said at one point. "Hit the Lights" came to its blazing end and almost as soon as it looks like the band wants to take a moment to breathe, they rip straight into "Master of Puppets". How rare is it for them to bring in "Puppets" so early into the show? I'm not sure what their intention was – perhaps it was to get the crowd as pumped up as possible – but it definitely worked. It was one hell of a treat.

The entire evening that followed was full of other such treats. METALLICA, through some almighty hand of knowing, ended up playing some of their best songs ever. Most of the songs were from the first five albums, with only one song from "Death Magnetic", the electrifying "Cyanide", and the rocking "Fuel", from "Load". What's more, they played some rather rare tracks as well. "Ride the Lightning" incinerated the stadium with Hetfield's near-perfect vocals and Hammett's generous use of the wah pedal (there have been some critics of Hammett's 'wah wah', but the effect of it live is unbelievable). But the best surprise of the night was "Orion". After a sexy drum groove courtesy of Ulrich, the band went into the song; eyes closed, heads banging, totally into it and lost in their own music. It was the most interesting and beautiful thing to watch – seeing your favorite band, your idols, get on stage after 30 years of hitting the road and record shelves hard and still playing like as if their lives depended on it. I don't have the statistics of how often METALLICA plays "Orion" live, and the song was featured before Kuala Lumpur in their Asian Tour, but I felt immensely honored to have heard it live – I never thought I would. Perhaps they played "Orion" because they know how unlike much of the world, Malaysian fans never really got to pay tribute and say their last goodbyes to Cliff Burton. Hetfield's words to commemorate the late bassist after the song felt so honest to me, that I teared up for the first time that night. Later, the fountains of emotion nearly went full blast again during "Nothing Else Matters" and "One".

The rest of the set completely killed, and if I described the way I felt for every single song this review would be 20 pages long. To put it simply – METALLICA has still got it. No, they seem to be getting better. There was a period when the quality of their sound live was questionable, but there seems to be absolutely no doubt now. Hetfield's voice is as brutally perfect as ever – his delivery during "Battery" was one of the more powerful performances of his I have ever seen (granted, the rest were from YouTube videos and DVDs). He lined his melodies with death growls at some points, and never hesitated to go very high or very low. He was absolutely relentless with all that 80's stamina again. As a guitarist, the way he is with his guitar seemed so effortless, so natural. Hetfield is one of those people who were born to play music. Hammett was a pure performer that night. Whenever the camera panned to him, it just seemed like he was in his own world. At times, I even wondered if he opens his eyes at all during his solos. Trujillo is a bass virtuoso, there's no doubt about it. Getting to see him onstage with his god-gifted ability, thundering away at the bass guitar as if it required minimal training was an absolute privilege, but you can tell from the man's physique that strength and stamina really adds on to how well he plays the bass. Ulrich was a darling, and he didn't miss a beat. I don't know much about the drums as an instrument, so I always refrain from commenting on his drumming ability, but no matter how much people want to dislike him, I have to say that he was the backbone of METALLICA that night. His drumming was tight, and his personality was infectious. He even did his little stand-up-drumming act, all the while sticking his tongue out like a devious child.

But in the end, it was the little things that counted most. Hearing Hammett's 'wah wah', watching Ulrich's facial expressions, witnessing Trujillo spinning with his bass and doing the spider walk, and for me, most importantly, to hear Hetfield address 30,000 people as the "Metallica FAMILEHHHH". I never thought I would ever write this review and can only think of how I would ever express my thanks to the giants who had defined my childhood and on the 21^st of August, made my life complete. I had been dreaming for far too long of joining the chorus of "Seek and Destroy". The band started 15 minutes early and ended 15 minutes late. It is by far the best concert I had ever been to and perhaps the best I will ever get to see. But oh wait, METALLICA did say they'd be back, didn't they? Just hope that it won't take another 30-odd years.

Setlist:
1. Hit the Lights
2. Master of Puppets
3. Fuel
4. Harvester of Sorrow
5. Fade to Black
6. Ride the Lightning
7. Cyanide
8. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
9. Sad But True
10. Orion
11. One
12. For Whom the Bell Tolls
13. Blackened
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman
16. Creeping Death
17. Battery
18. Seek and Destroy