For someone who has just jumped in to drive the bass sounds for the biggest hard rock band on the planet, Robert Trujillo is doing a great job.

It was only the beginning of what was a blistering 140-minute, diehard fan's dream set list that, mercifully, drew mainly from the band's first five albums.

The sell-out crowd moshed the day away to worldwide superstars Metallica, local rockers Jet and kings of cool the Strokes in an Australia Day weekend tradition.

There were 15,000 seriously damaged ears at the Entertainment Centre last night as metal gods Metallica took to the stage in Sydney for the first time in six years.

Seasoned professionals in brutality, Lars, James and the Metallica lads aimed to please.

They've lost the outrageous hairdos, but Metallica are still as heavy as ever, Christine Sams writes.

"Metallica who?" asked the confused Raglan local.
"Is that like metal?," said Te Wewiri at Raglan Beach yesterday, slightly embarrassed she had just been chatting to one of the world's most famous heavy metal bands and didn't know it.

Online Entertainment Editor MEGAN GIBB interviewed Metallica singer James Hetfield before their performance at the Big Day Out.

It happens every year at the Big Day Out. In the weeks before, opinion shifts from the lineup being "not as good as last year" to the recognition that this is another Big One.