Still Masters of Metallurgy

Relevance is not guaranteed in rock. It’s an endless struggle for bands to remain current, and few survive. But Metallica isn’t about to spend its third decade as part of any ‘80s metal nostalgia tour. That attitude made the band’s Saturday headlining show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum both a triumph and a personal challenge.

In an eight-hour concert that also included memorable sets by Korn and Kid Rock, Metallica often traded in the same hyper-flash metal playing that first made a mark for the band some two decades ago. But the music rarely sounded dated.

If that sound has sometimes seemed too rigid to grow, signature tunes such as 1991’s “Enter Sandman” remained direct, expressive and diamond-hard. James Hetfield was a sturdy riff-making machine, trading dark and aggressive guitar passages with Kirk Hammett.

The bold changes Metallica made to its sound with its late-’90s albums “Load” and “Reload” were wise and necessary, and done at a time when anything associated with ‘80s metal was doomed to extinction. But for all the refinement, Metallica still lags creatively behind the new generation of metal bands epitomized by Korn.

Modernizing for Metallica has amounted to resorting to conventional song forms, while some of the bands initially inspired by Metallica’s example have discovered new ways to rock.

In changing, Metallica added complexity without sacrificing its frantic, hard-rock thrust. That energy could be felt Saturday even within the few delicate songs, as when Hetfield sat at the front of the stage with a guitar to quietly pick at his instrument and sing the ballad “Nothing Else Matters,” a 1991 song that showed him fully capable of subtler modes of expression.

Whether picking or rocking hard, Metallica’s set never lost the attention of the Coliseum’s near-capacity, head-banging, fist-pumping crowd. There was no sign of fan backlash against the band’s much-publicized battle with Napster over the free and unsanctioned Internet downloading of music.

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But the band was clearly reaching out to fans on Saturday, lingering for several minutes to thank the crowd at the end of the night. Hetfield was a warm host throughout, declaring: “We are Metallica and so are you!”

The crowd gathered for the five-act concert was frequently energetic and rowdy, particularly during the half-hour wait for Metallica, when large numbers of fans waged a war of flying beer cups, lemons and firecrackers, while an endless parade of women bared their breasts to appreciative cheers. At one point, an inflatable sex doll was sent crowd-surfing in front of the stage.

While the night was clearly Metallica’s, Korn’s set was also worthy of a stadium headliner. Korn offers a more contemporary metal blend, fused with both punk rock and hip-hop. The sound was typically harsh and relentless, always dark but never so lost in the gloom that the action ever slowed down.

Singer Jonathan Davis wore a black kilt and stomped in front of his microphone, utilizing few trappings and props from Korn’s recent arena tour other than his bagpipes for “Dead.” The central, overwhelming thrust of the band’s music translated well to the Coliseum, though much of the band’s tormented personality was inevitably lost in the big space. Not that Davis didn’t understand stadium rock traditions. At one point he shouted, “Let me see those lighters!”

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Kid Rock has found the unlikely nexus where hip-hop meets classic rock, a place where it’s entirely appropriate for the vocalist to give a lecture on oral sex across an old Joe Walsh riff.

Like support acts Powerman 5000 and System of a Down, Rock faced the crowd in daylight and stared into the sunshine through dark wraparound shades. He was joined on stage by his full band and a trio of thong-clad go-go dancers, all of whom helped the Detroit rapper fill a giant stage decorated by a giant U.S. flag.

Rock also worked the stage hard, frantically moving from the microphone to the turntables to drums to electric guitar.

He slowed things down briefly for “Only God Knows Why,” a song reminiscent of Rolling Stones balladry, before launching back into hard rock/hip-hop of “Cowboy” and Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘We’re an American Band.”

His set closed with his new single “American Bad Ass,” a song built on a riff culled from a Metallica sample. It was an early taste of what was yet to come at the Coliseum, and suggested that Metallica’s continuing influence and relevance are in no danger at all.