Video: Metallica Performing “Master of Puppets” in the Pouring Rain is Fucking Epic

You know we love to rag on Metallica ’round here, but it’s from a place of love… and sometimes they deserve it, like the absolutely atrociously executed cover song “doodles” Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo perform at each show. But sometimes the band proves why they’re the legends they are, and their performance of “Master of Puppets” the other night in Manchester, England was just such an example.

Everyone knows it rains a lot in England and, well, on the night of June 18th in Manchester it did just that — and it did so ferociously. But the Brits are prepared for such events, and the show must go on, so go on it did. And naturally there’s footage because Metallica film everything.

And holy shit: the band members are sooooooaked! With his hair slicked back and matted down, Papa Het looks more like The Cowardly Lion than ever before, Kirk looks as if he just got out of the swimming pool and you can see water splashing up into the air with each of Lars’s drum hits. The band is clearly struggling to play everything accurately, but that’s part of the magic of it — they’re very much rolling with the challenge and having fun!

I wonder whether they used their “B” line of instruments (or even “C” line, or hastily procured replacements) for this show in the event they all got ruined by the water or if they stuck with their regular gear? How many of those microphones and other shit do you think got damaged beyond repair? These are the kinds of things my neurotic ass thinks about.

Watch below and be glad you’re inside and dry right now.