It had been a very long time coming, for me to attend a real, full production concert. Actually, it had been 21 long months since my wife and I saw Korn and Breaking Benjamin in Columbus, before the world came to a screeching halt. As 2021 has progressed, I’ve been able to see some really good tribute bands and a couple weeks ago I was able to catch a small scale concert from 80’s rockers Great White. The lineup for yesterday’s final day of the Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville was too good to pass up and was just what I needed.

The Wife and I had planned to be down to Louisville in time to catch The Hu and Skillet but unfortunately, for us, Cincinnati happened. I’ve been driving for a lot of years. Never in my life has there been a casual drive through Cincinnati. I don’t know what it is about that town, but traffic delays there and between Florence and Kentucky Motor Speedway added considerable time to our voyage, unfortunately putting us there at the end of Skillet’s set.

Having been to many other Danny Wimmer Presents productions in the past, we explored the grounds for a little; making comparisons to Rock on the Range/Sonic Temple Music Festival. Concession prices were quite steep, but the atmosphere was great. More relaxed than some other festivals I’ve been too, we were able to make our way fairly close to one of my favorite bands, Sabaton. As they have each of the other three times I’ve seen them, they were phenomenal. While my wife couldn’t really see much, I’m hopeful that I was able to make a fan out of her. Joakim Broden and the boys from Sweden raced through a ten song set of most of their biggest hits as well as their new single. Virtually between every song, the band would pause long enough to let the deafening “Sabaton!” chants die down. As always, one of the best performances of the event.

Sabaton Set List per setlist.fm

1. Ghost Division
2. The Last Stand
3. Swedish Pagans
4. The Red Baron
5. Carolus Rex
6. Fields of Verdun
7. The Attack of the Dead Men
8. Primo Victoria
9. Steel Commanders
10. To Hell and Back

From there we went to the main stages area to see the rest of Breaking Benjamin, who had started before Sabaton had finished. As always, BB sounded great and it was fitting that we were able to see some of them in our first big concert, since they also played at the last show we had gone too 21 months ago.

After Breaking Benjamin finished up, it was on to the two main stage headliners for the evening. The festival could not have nailed it much better either. Judas Priest, one of the founding bands of heavy metal, are touring on their 50th anniversary. Sadly, they were only allotted a one hour time slot, which is just way too short for a band of Priest’s stature. Halford and the band were firing on all cylinders; albeit with some curious setlist choices, it did me good to see so many young people witnessing this band probably for the first time. The scream in “Victim of Changes” is still one of, if not the, best screams in heavy metal history.

Judas Priest Set List

1. One Shot at Glory
2. Lightning Strike
3. You’ve Got Another Thing Coming
4. Freewheel Burning
5. The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown) *Fleetwood Mac cover w/ Kirk Hammett
6. Turbo Lover
7. Hell Patrol
8. The Sentinel
9. Victim of Changes
10. Hell Bent for Leather
11. Painkiller

After a short break, the main event of the festival took the stage for the second of their two headlining appearances of the weekend. Saying they had something special planned would be an understatement, as they played their self titled “black” album in its entirety. I’m not one of those people that says that Metallica sold out with that record. I’ve always thought that was a lazy take. Is it my favorite Metallica album? No. That would probably be And Justice For All. But, what the “black album” did for metal music cannot be ignored. It is the defining record that made metal acceptable in the mainstream & it has many songs that flat out jam. Is it thrash? No. Is it heavy metal? Yes.

As the band is celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of that record it was pretty cool to see the album played in its entirety in reverse chronological order. It’s my wife’s favorite record by the band also, so that was a cool moment being able to share that with her; at her first Metallica show. The band sounded fantastic as always. Some people might complain because it’s the edgy take, but DWP will never fail to sell out a festival when they’re able to secure the biggest metal band in history to headline his shows. Period.

Metallica Set List

1. Hardwired
2. The Four Horsemen
3. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
4. The Struggle Within
5. My Friend of Misery
6. The God That Failed
7. Of Wolf and Man
8. Nothing Else Matters
9. Through the Never
10. Don’t Tread on Me
11. Wherever I May Roam
12. The Unforgiven
13. Holier Than Thou
14. Sad But True
15. Enter Sandman
16. Blackened *Encore*
17. Creeping Death *Encore*