Metallica THE FLAME BURNS ON!
Metallica’s spirits were riding sky-high on the Scandinavian leg of the Master Of Puppets tour last fall. Drummer Lars Ulrich, the expatriate Dane, eagerly looked forward to a Copenhagen homecoming marked by swarms of fans—their arms open, their pockets bulging.
Metallica THE FLAME BURNS ON!
Richard Hogan
Metallica’s spirits were riding sky-high on the Scandinavian leg of the Master Of Puppets tour last fall. Drummer Lars Ulrich, the expatriate Dane, eagerly looked forward to a Copenhagen homecoming marked by swarms of fans—their arms open, their pockets bulging. Singer James Hetfield, minus his guitar since July, when he’d fractured his wrist in Indiana, had begun to crank out the power chords again, his arm strengthening with each show from Oslo to Lund to Stockholm. Bassist Cliff Burton and guitarist Kirk Hammett basked in the glow of sales of their third album which was creeping up on the 800,000 mark worldwide and doing it with almost no airplay.
The band’s momentum snowballed as 4,000 Swedes crammed the Skedsmosehallen in Stockholm September 26 to hear the masters of doomsday metal. It was the first European show to feature Hetfield’s full-scale return to his instrument. It also proved to be Cliff’s last appearance.