A Setlist Back to the Roots
The evening’s setlist had a strong back-to-basics feel: “Creeping Death,” “Fuel,” “Wherever I May Roam,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” “…And Justice for All,” “Disposable Heroes,” “Orion,” “Fade to Black,” “Master of Puppets,” “Battery,” “One,” “Enter Sandman,” “Whiplash,” and “Seek & Destroy.”
The show also featured a few small historic firsts for the Greek crowd: it was the first time “…And Justice for All” and “Orion” were played in Greece.
The crowd’s response was explosive. Rocking.gr described the 25,000-strong audience generating an intense atmosphere with mosh pits, stage diving, and objects hurled into the air.
Even James Hetfield seemed stunned by the Greek crowd’s reaction, repeatedly saying from the stage “I don’t believe it,” while Lars Ulrich pledged the band would be back soon.
The concert did, however, leave its mark on the natural landscape of Malakasa, the ground after the show was torn up and destroyed, not a blade of grass left in sight.
2010: The Thrash Metal “Holy Four”
Three years later, on June 24, 2010, Metallica returned once more to Malakasa for the Sonisphere Festival, this time as part of the legendary “Big Four” tour alongside Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. For fans of thrash metal, it was treated almost like a historic summit.
Writing in To Vima on February 19, 2010, Sakis Dimitrakopoulos described the band’s arrival as one of the biggest concert events of the year. He quoted Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, who had said at the start of the tour: “The fans have wanted these four bands to play together since 1984. That’s 26 years of anticipation! I believe we won’t just meet expectations — we’ll exceed them. No other quartet of bands with this kind of influence has ever done this. Can you imagine the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, and Zeppelin appearing together? Or Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, and Motörhead? OK, maybe I’m overstating it, but that’s how huge I feel this is.”
Metallica’s set that night included 18 songs from seven different albums, with Greek premieres for “Ride the Lightning,” “Blackened,” “Breadfan,” and “Motorbreath.”
By that point, every Greek appearance they made also functioned as a small retrospective on the history of heavy metal itself.
Looking back, from the police cordon around Nea Smyrni and the armada of trucks at Rizoupoli, to the ground at Malakasa that couldn’t bear the weight of 25,000 fans, Metallica never passed through Greece quietly. Their legendary concerts stand as milestones in the Greek public’s relationship with the great international rock spectacle
