At last! A dream comes true! Since I am pretty young, I have missed many live shows that I wanted to see when I was a little child (you know, parent issues). One of the live shows I had missed was the last time METALLICA had visited Greece along with MONSTER MAGNET. Two of my favorite bands were tearing the stage apart and I was just absent. Anyway, my dream came true at Tuesday, the 3rd of July. The last day of the Rockwave Festival had a higher price than the other two due to METALLICA's presence. The organizers had the fine idea of making the 80 euros place in front of the stage really large giving some really hard time to the fans who paid 60 euros to watch their favorite band from a distance. Adding to that, we inhaled some significant amounts of dust during METALLICA's performance. Let us hope that they WILL learn from their mistakes and REALLY work according to the European standards.

Me, Dimitris and some friends took off for Terra Vibe, the location where the festival was taking place. Due to some problems (traffic, bad programming, lack of timetable etc), we were unfortunate enough to miss DIRT SPAWN DISEASE, which in fact were supposed to start at 17:00 or 17:30 (if I am not mistaken), and a friend of mine told me that they had started much earlier. When we entered Terra Vibe, MY DYING BRIDE were on stage to perform their classic Doom_Death Metal style. Aaron seemed to be in a good mood and the sound was pretty good (not the best possible though). Since I am not a fan of this band I can't be objective, but one thing I can say for sure is that these guys cannot give the 100% of their abilities under circumstances like high temperature, the sunny climate of Greece and the time they had to play (it wasn't even evening). Only when the sun falls down - along with the temperature - MY DYING BRIDE can show their true face and kick some ass (the fact that I'm not a fan of them doesn't mean they are not a great band).

The next band to hit the stage were the American metallers MASTODON. I had the chance to see them performing live last December as a support act to TOOL, when their sound was awful and I had only watched 3-4 songs. This time I would enjoy their performance no matter what. MASTODON's sound was way better than the one they had with TOOL and they seemed pretty energetic on stage. They started with Iron Tusk and everyone was left wondering how the fuck do they compose such hymns! With songs like Blood & Thunder, The Wolf Is Loose and Colony Of Birchmen, MASTODON proved that they are one of the best bands out there and they can show the world some pure Metal!!!

MASTODON's set was over and it was time for METALLICA to get on stage and deliver some Thrash_Heavy_Stoner and everything they have played in their career assault! We were waiting for something to happen almost an hour until James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo appeared on stage waving at the crowd. The lights were on and Creeping Death came out of the band's instruments like a holy grenade ready to explode (how the fuck did I remember Worms, the pc game?). Something strange was happening since the sound seemed to be a bit lower than before. The next thing we heard was the speakers that were ready to deliver their souls to the Metal gods and the next thing we didn't hear was Hetfield's voice because his microphone did deliver its soul to him! After they managed to go through those technical problems, they kept on going with hymns like Fuel, Wherever I May Roam, Disposable Heroes, Battery and many more. The setlist has been posted online and you can also find it uploaded on the news so there is no need to tell you every single track they played. What I need to tell you is that the caveman - as Hetfield called Trujillo - was in a berserk mode running around and even dancing with his bass, Hammett was shredding like a beast, Hetfield's voice was great as always and Lars ended up threatening to kill the crowd if they say they need more tracks from the Kill'em All album! No comments on the crowd, which was awesome and was singing more than Hetfield himself and was constantly creating moshpits everywhere! Unfortunately, the show did not feature the classic pyro show; the band commented on the festival management which explained them that it was too dangerous to use them due to the high risk of setting fire to the surrounding forest.

METALLICA proved that they are one of the best live Metal bands ever and everyone who turned his back on this live will regret it for sure! This show was an incredible experience with the two bands that I like (MASTODON, METALLICA) delivering a hell of a nice show and offering the crowd some heavy and pure Metal! Even though I wanted to listen to songs like Leper Messiah, Motorbreath, Jump In The Fire or The Four Horsemen, I was satisfied with a setlist that fed the appetite of every Metallifan! All of you who missed the show, better prepare for the next METALLICA stop here. You have been warned!