Even before the main act began, there was an electricity that could only be generated by a stadium full of people who were all there to see perhaps their all-time favourite band.

The stage here is like a giant steel pool table. In the middle of the room. Four lots of identical amp configurations lie mirrored across its spine, back to back, creating essentially, four identical stage settings connected by the drumkit in its centre.

Lars is interviewed before the Australian tour opener in Melbourne on Wednesday by Triple M's Dave Higgins about life on the road.

Metallica have got over their inner turmoil and time in therapy, Kirk Hammett reveals in our backstage interview.

It is true. Metallica were booed last night at their concert at Melbourne`s Rod Laver Arena but that was because fans did not want them to finish.

To the thousands of Australian metal heads who have forked out their hard earned to see heavy metal giant Metallica?s World Magnetic Tour ? you are in for one hell of a treat.

Metallica kicked off their Australian tour at Melbourne?s Rod Laver Arena last night (Wed, 15/9) with a mixed set that at times showed the 15,000 strong crowd why they are the icons they are, and at times felt like they were a shadow of their former selve

THE roar from 15,000 fans inside a sold-out Rod Laver Arena when Metallica hit the stage was almost as loud as the band.

Metallica are no longer the band who faced near-collapse in the therapy-centred 2003 documentary Some Kind Of Monster, says guitarist Kirk Hammett.

Student volunteers who helped in the earthquake clean-up have been rewarded with tickets to a sold-out Metallica gig.