Last Sunday Cologne saw yet another great appearance by one of my all time favorites when it comes down to music: Metallica! Their World Magnetic tour brought them into my very own hometown, 20 mins by train right into Kölnarena. Couple of years ago I saw them play there already which I don't remember that well, but that would be another story.

Don't worry, I am not discussing Death Magnetic here. In fact I am talking about "Cologne Magnetic". Some of you might know, for the rest some background. Metallica has always been that kind of band that fought against Napster and the likes to protect their music from illegal copying. But they were also the very first to tell their fans to bring their own recording equipment to a show and create their own bootleg. Which I think is a more than great move. But then they thought about it a little and introduced a great new feature to the Tallica Universe: http://livemetallica.com/. The service is quite simple: Metallica plays a show and records it while doing so with their equipment. Only a day after the show you are able to purchase the show as MP3 or FLAC, whatever you like for US $9.95 or US $12.95. Usually a show is 2hrs+, so I would say it is quite a fair deal.

Long story short, I am discussing the "album" Death Cologne here, which is the live recording of their show from 17th May 2009.
Find all details here:
http://www.livemetallica.com/live-music/0,259/Metallica-mp3-flac-download-5-17-2009-Lanxess-Arena-Cologne-GER.html

The kickoff for the show was That was just your life, followed by The end of the line. What a start. James Hetfield was working hard to keep up his singing for sure. Live it sounded really good and on the bootleg it is even better! The whole setup with the stage in the center of the venue and the band playing all sides and therefore creating a shitload of energy is just how it needs to be done. Also the stage is as low as could be, so even if you are right next to it you don't have to break your neck to get a glimps of what Hetfield and the others do up there. Metallica always prefered this setup it seems as you can see it on the Cunning Stunts DVD also, which is 10 years old or so ;)

Six songs from Death Magnetic are enriched by old material from all albums there is I guess. None of the great songs is missing and some of the live versions are very rare. I enjoyed And Justice for all, Fade to black and Master of Puppets the most. But that does not mean One or Nothing else matters did not have their magic. As a matter of fact this show was great from the very first note being played by Ulrich to the last "hell yeah" from Hetfield.

How could such a show get a perfect closing? By 18.000 crazy people shouting Seek and destroy I guess and that is exactly what happened.

Now where does that leave us now in terms of conclusions?
a) If you don't have the whole Metallica catalogue already, make sure you get it, it's 100% worth it!
b) If you haven't seen them live yet, make sure you do if you like their music just a little, you will love it afterwards cause you are totally taken in by their energy live! And get a Tallica shirt for that or a Schroet one ;)
c) Death Magnetic is such a great album that as a stand alone really is one of the all time Top 10 ones I would say, but if you listen to a couple of these songs live, you appreciate it even more.
d) This band has a huge history and what they do for their fans with a service like livemetallica.com is outstanding.

Have fun experiencing all of that on your own, I will return listening to Cologne Magnetic now and while doing so I might consider the next album I will blog about or get myself tickets to see Metallica at Hockenheim Ring 4th July 09 ;)