Beautiful and creepy: Metallica’s Helping Hands...Live & Acoustic at The Masonic

“Beautiful and creepy” — these adjectives uttered straight from the mouth of singer (and rhythm guitarist) James Hetfield mid-performance were the perfect words to describe Metallica’s newest album, Helping Hands…Live & Acoustic at The Masonic (performed in San Francisco on November 3, 2018, but released February 1, 2019). In general, the tone of the guitar was beautiful and almost majestic at times, while the singing is what reminded everyone that, even though the music may suggest otherwise, they were indeed listening to Metallica. At first, the singing sounds a little unsettling, and maybe even a little uncomfortable (hence the “creepy” part of the description), but once you get used to it, the vocals just sounds badass and makes everything around it better as well.

The album consists of four covers and eight actual Metallica songs. Though this may seem like more covers than avid Metallica fans may desire, every single one was played to perfection. They were close enough to the originals so that if you like the originals, you will like the covers; that being said, they also add just the right amount of Metallica to every cover so that each song still sounds different enough from the originals. In a weird kind of way, the originals are not better than the covers and the covers are not better than the originals. They both invoke the same emotions but are somehow different. One cover in particular — Deep Purple’s “When a Blind Man Cries” — was performed and arranged unbelievably well. Admittedly, as a much bigger Deep Purple fan than Metallica fan, I was a bit skeptical when I saw “When a Blind Man Cries” on the album, but Metallica’s performance immediately impressed me. The guitar was played rather differently than the original, but I think that it actually worked out because, quite frankly, anybody who tries to play a Ritchie Blackmore guitar part (who is not named Ritchie Blackmore) would not sound up to par. The second half of the song was so energetic and fantastic; it was truly the perfect mesh of Deep Purple and Metallica.

The Metallica songs were also arranged generally well for an acoustic show. After all, it is probably not the easiest task to rearrange a bunch of heavy metal songs acoustically. As is the case in every acoustic performance I have heard from Metallica, “Nothing Else Matters” was absolutely incredible. However, their arrangement of “Enter Sandman” stole the show; it was so vastly different than the original, but somehow even better. The drums — rather than the original drumbeat on the toms — kept a simple, yet steady rhythm on the hi-hat. This opened up the opportunity for haunting guitar chords to be strummed, while the vocals perfectly reinforced the vibe that was already sonically in place. To take the song to an even higher level, there was slide guitar during some parts that further intensified the song’s mood. Finally, the guitar solo was maybe the best thing I have ever heard from lead guitarist Kirk Hammett; it really was just the icing on the cake of a perfect performance.

Overall, this album is a must listen for anybody who generally considers themselves a fan of rock music. Metallica fans will love it because it still sounds like Metallica. But even more impressive is the fact that people who are not Metallica fans (myself included) still have a chance of absolutely loving it. The album is not flawless by any means (mainly, I just wish there were a lot more instrumental sections), but every feeling it tries to convey, it does so exquisitely well. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two better acoustic albums: Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York (1993) and Eric Clapton’s Unplugged (1992). Needless to say, that is some legendary company to be with, but I am happy to acknowledge the fact that Metallica deserves every bit of the praise for this album.