It wasn’t a real reunion night since Metallica has returned to Montreal often since August 8, 1992, the fateful evening when James Hetfield was hit by pyrotechnics and where the concert – cut short – also featuring Guns N ‘Roses turned into a riot. That said, it was a return to Olympic Stadium for the famous heavy metal band. In itself, it was already eventful.

However, Metallica has raised the bar a notch by offering its fans an enticing concept: two concerts in each city visited, with a completely different list of songs from one evening to the next. A mix of classics and tracks from his most recent album, 72 Seasons, his most convincing in ages, concocted with the desire to please, but also to avoid repetition.

The operation was not only ambitious on paper. It was, in fact, the most imposing stage device seen in Montreal for a long time. Eight gigantic towers had been erected in the Olympic Stadium to support two battalions of loudspeakers: one facing upwards, the other facing downwards, in the hope of delivering quality sound in a renowned enclosure. for its difficult acoustics.

Technical teams had been in Montreal since the beginning of the week to prepare for the concert, the success of which could have an impact far beyond the aura of Metallica. This mega-show was a test of sorts, the success of which would determine whether or not the Olympic Stadium could be considered a viable space to present large-scale concerts, as explained to the newspaper Le Devoir Nick Farkas, vice-president president of programming, concerts and events at evenko.

And then ? Was it convincing? Come back to read the report of our journalist Alexandre Vigneault from 5 a.m. on Saturday.