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I had wanted to see Crypta and Sacred Reich, but missed everyone except Sepultura.

Funnily enough, as I was wondering why they never hired a second guitarist to boost their live sound after Max left, while also lamenting missing Crypta, their guitarist joined Sepultura on stage for a song. For a moment, I hoped she would stay for the final however many songs.

I thought Sepultura sounded better than when they played the Belfast Telegraph building on their final ever (just joking!) tour.

Edit: Just finding out that Luana Dametto wasn't on drums this tour (temporary for some reason) and they're onto their third lead guitarist. Don't mind that I missed them as much now.

I didn't really mind it, except for one of the songs when it seemed rather poor.

They're not going to have a budget to hire CGI artists for a tour. Either we get something that looks like it was made on yer ma's 90s PC, no graphics at all, or AI.

They claim this tour is their last, but I have to wonder if a reunion with Igor and Max is on the cards in a few years.

I honestly didn't think Megadeth were that big these days. BLS and Testament are fantastic support, but it's almost sold out before the general on sale!

The MCD presale is pretty slim. Standing gone. Most seats gone.

They're asking £170 for a ticket at the side, mid way back.

£73 at the very back.

£185 for standing "early entry".

Edit: WTF, had FOMO and got the early entry standing ticket, but now they have regular standing tickets available. Grim.

Edit 2: Might be a glitch. It says they're unavailable when you actually try to buy.

That's a hamlet, mate. 

I'm just going off what Wikipedia and Google calls it, but apparently the UK often classifies settlements smaller than 7,500 as a village.

I can't really say I disagree. I've been in 11,000 population towns and they seem like tiny backwaters.

Aye, I thought the streets after the gig was amazing. Seemed like there were so many more people than Dublin, and you almost immediately walk onto a long street that's just bar after bar.

Although, while the stadium is incredible, the general transport infrastructure seems a bit lacking. It was a shock to find that Cardiff Airport is smaller than Belfast City airport. I had to wait an hour for a bus to take me to a 7k population village, where I caught a train into Cardiff.

The official recording is out now on livemetallica.com.

It definitely sounds a lot better and tighter than both Slane and the dates I was at in 2024.

They did fix one of Kirk's obvious fuck ups at the start of "Day", so who knows how much they do to touch it up in general. Probably not much, since Kirk's usual sloppiness is there in many solos. James' vocals at the start of Until it Sleeps sound a bit patchy, too.

After Cardiff last night, I can confirm that the acoustics in the Aviva are just mad shite.

if ye want to pay good money for a St. Anger gig, then fill your boots.

I would love to go to a Metallica gig where they played the whole of St. Banger. 

I wish the song they had to play to get outta Dublin alive was in fact And Justice For All. 

Aside from missing Pantera, i was happy with the gig. The Metallica family spiel is cringe, and the pointless doodle i could have done with out, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable gig overall.

We're all the Metallica family, until Kirk throws a handful of picks into the crowd, at which point it's every man, woman, child, and baby for themselves. Hair gets pulled. Eyes get raked. Fingers get shoved in holes you didn't even know you had.

I did find the beachballs during Seek and Destroy odd.

They've been doing that for a while, though it depends on the song. In Munich they did the beach balls for Seek and Destroy, then Breadfan on the Sunday.

But even back in Belfast in 2010 they had the big balls for Seek.

Maybe I'm getting old, but S&D and Puppets bore me a bit.

I was in a pretty decent seat and the sound was great.Was a bit muffled for the Pantera vocals but there's loads online complaining that the sound was piss poor.For the money being charged that's ridiculous.You'd hope it will be sorted for the Sunday gig.

On Reddit () people were saying that the sound has improved on night two for other gigs. I saw them in Munich in 24 and it was fantastic both nights, even during the support.

It was a very basic stadium though. There's not all the shite the Aviva has to reflect sound. Edit: I misremembered. It has a kind of awning to cover a bunch of seats, too. Still seems way more open  than the Aviva, though.

You'd think they'd dial in the sound during sound check...

I thought the setlist was deadly. The only problem is shortening it to 15 songs from 16 (but that's been like that for over a year) and the 72 seasons songs. But IDHAS is still a banger off that album.

The whole point of these shows is you get more deep cuts. Cyanide and Leper Messiah are great adds, for example.

It does kinda spoil the potential setlist for night two when you know all the songs they CAN'T play. There's only about 20 songs I reckon they could even play tomorrow.

I got caught out by them shifting everything forward, too. Was gutted when I realised I was going to miss almost all of Pantera's set, but then when I got in, the sound was pretty poor so I got myself a beer and some food instead.

It surprised me how many people were milling about outside the stadium not worried in the slightest that they were missing Pantera. I guess some people legitimately weren't that familiar with them.