Metallica: A Future Without the Fury?

A phase is ending for Metallica, and it will be interesting to see where the most ferocious of heavy-metal bands will turn next.

After well over a year on the road, the future probably was the last thing the Northern California band had in mind Thursday night at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. Before a capacity crowd of 15,000 who slammed fists, heads and bodies to its rumbling slab of sound, Metallica began a three-night stand (ending tonight) that concludes its U.S. tour behind the double-platinum album “. . . And Justice for All.” (There are, though, a few more dates in South America before the group gets to rest.)

On Thursday, Metallica gave itself more than two hours to review territory covered thus far.

There was speed metal--an ‘80s sub-genre that Metallica pretty much defined--all frenetic chugging, meet-at-the-final-angry-chord-and-melody-be-damned. There were slower, lumbering head-banger beats, familiar to heavy-rock fans since Black Sabbath’s early days, but seldom delivered with more glowering intensity. And, in the departure that makes Metallica’s future worth pondering, there were sculpted, episodic pieces in which the band explores guitar lyricism between blasts of its accustomed headlong fury.

Fury and revulsion are the basis for virtually all of Metallica’s music. The show began with “Blackened,” a grim portrayal of nuclear holocaust. Taking off from this opening overview of the Earth’s fate, James Hetfield, Metallica’s singer-lyricist, spent the rest of the concert roaring about such subsidiary evils as conventional war, insanity, suicide and drug addiction. Metallica capped its show--as it has for this entire tour--by exploding a massive statue of Blind Justice that, in a less elaborate echo of Pink Floyd’s staging of “The Wall,” had been built bit by bit while the band played on a set that looked like a courthouse ruin.

The seriousness and passion with which Metallica attacks its dark themes is unusual for heavy metal, and that seriousness sets a welcome example for bands and fans who want to move beyond the typical metal subjects of sexual swagger, dumb fun and sword-and-sorcery fantasy escape. But Metallica still is prone to one common metal malady: a tendency to inflate ideas to an epic scale while cloaking them in dramatic abstractions.

Perhaps Metallica’s future can bring a more personal approach to songwriting, not to mention an exploration of some less dire subjects. The band did show it could create a lighter mood during an offhanded encore that included one or two metal-boogie numbers played in a garage-rock style that was loose but still emphatic.

Another question for the future is how far Metallica is willing to go toward balancing brute force with lyricism. While the band’s hammering power is surely at the core of its success, the show’s most affecting moments came when the din subsided for stately harmony guitar parts that achieved a lovely grandeur.

“Fade to Black,” the meditation on suicide, ended with a memorable passage in which lead guitarist Kirk Hammett combined force and melody to fine emotional effect. It conveyed deep sorrow without reining in the band’s hard-rock thrust. During his otherwise unremarkable solo guitar spot, Hammett paid homage to Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” the zenith of rock guitar lyricism. Not a bad direction to keep pursuing.

Also open to question, of course, is whether Metallica’s audience would be willing to follow if the band decided to move further from a pure speed-metal base and closer to the more lyrical hard-rock tradition of Hendrix and the Who. But on this night, the point was to enjoy the band-audience bond as it exists now, in a show that recapitulated Metallica’s past with authority.

If Metallica doesn’t leap into the metal future, Faith No More may get there first. The Bay Area band’s opening set was a boundary-breaking amalgam of progressive-rock keyboards, rap-soul vocals, thrash-metal rhythms and wailing heavy guitar--all held together with accomplished playing. Singer Mike Patton spent too much time fretting aloud about the less than rapturous reception the band was getting. He ought to relax: An adventurous approach always takes some time to sink in.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets for a fourth Rolling Stones Coliseum concert Oct. 18 go on sale today at 9 a.m. Guns N’ Roses and Living Colour are also on the bill. . . . Tickets on sale Sunday for a Christmas-themed package of Kenny Rogers and the Oak Ridge Boys, Nov. 24-26 at the Universal Amphitheatre. . . . On sale Monday for Wiltern Theatre concerts are the Waterboys (Nov. 6 and 7) and Jean-Luc Ponty (Nov. 11 and 12). . . . Billy Squier headlines a Halloween concert Oct. 31 at the Greek Theatre, also on sale Monday. . . . A third Stevie Nicks date has been added at the Greek Theatre, Oct. 26, as has a second Oingo Boingo date at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Oct. 28. . . . k.d. lang will be at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim on Oct. 4. . . . Nanci Griffith and James McMurtry team up at the Wadsworth Theatre on Oct. 5. . . . Timbuk 3 plays two nights at McCabe’s, Oct. 12 and 13. . . . 24-7 Spyz will be at the Whisky on Oct. 26.