Metallica bring Reading Festival to a close

United Kingdom | | 25 August 2008

Metallica brought down the curtain on Reading Festival last night (Sunday) with a hit heavy set of metal anthems.

The US rockers blasted through a 90-minute set, which included two new songs 'Cyanide' and 'The Day That Never Comes', from their forthcoming album 'Death Magnetic'.

Featuring a spectacular pyrotechnics show, fans were treated to the loudest show of the weekend, in the wake of complaints about low sound levels on the main stage.

Starting the set with 'Creep', Metallica raced through all their biggest hits, including 'Nothing Else Matters', 'Master Of Puppets' and 'Enter Sandman', before ending on a racous 'Seek And Destroy' as fireworks saw out the festival in style.

Earlier on, Tenacious D brought their comedy rock show to Reading Festival for the first time, drawing a huge crowd to the main stage.

Jack Black took to the stage in a wizard's robe while Kyle Gass emeged in a green lizard's outfit, but it was the appearance of a metal demon character during song 'The Metal' which raised the biggest cheers.

The theatrical band were also joined by a large 'devil', who Black danced with during the hit 'Tribute' as the American pair warmed the stage for Metallica.

Feeder proved one of the surprise hits of the day, treating legions of fans to a selection of their greatest hits.

Singer Grant Nicholls dedicated the song 'Buck Rogers' to Slipknot, who were meant to be playing the slot but were forced to cancel, but the highlight of the set was a stunning cover of Nirvana's 'Breed'.

Avenged Sevenfold were also forced to pull their set on the main stage due to illness, prompting some ribbing from the Dropkick Murphys during their afternoon show.

Frontman Al Barr told the crowd: "We won't cancel because of vocal strain, I've been playing with vocal strain for 20 years", before the band were joined by Shane McGowan on stage.