The past five years have been a headache for some Metallica fans.

The abysmal “St. Anger” was like a hangover after a weekend of poor decisions.

So when Metallica announced they will tour America for the first time since the “Anger” days, some fans cringed. Would they play “Frantic” or “Fuel”? Or the god-awful “Fixxxer?”

Nope.

James, Lars, Kirk and Robert finally have the formula down right. Some new stuff, like “Cyanide” and “The Day That Never Comes,” is great, but what fans want to hear are the old thrash songs. Monday’s showing at the Allstate Arena gave just that.

After opening with two songs from their latest album, “Death Magnetic,” they slammed into “Creeping Death” and “Ride the Lightning” with such a force that would make even the most casual fan a zealous headbanger.

The band rotated between old and new, but the concert reached its low point during “All Nightmare Long.” Thankfully, though, it didn’t stay there, because 10 minutes later, Hetfield and Co. jammed to the crowd-pleasing epic “Master of Puppets.”

The rest of the concert continued smoothly with staples such as “Enter Sandman” and “Nothing Else Matters” along with classics “Blackened” and “Motorbreath.” They closed out the show with “Seek and Destroy,” a song that’s always played with the same intensity since the band’s inception nearly 27 years ago.

The entire show was nearly perfect; the only flaws would be one a diehard Metallica fan would notice. While it’s understandable to play some new hits, it would have been awesome if they traded some of them for more oldies, like “Battery” or “Damage, Inc.”

It’s also confusing why they do not play the openings to certain songs, like “That Was Just Your Life.” It’s not as if it’s extraordinarily difficult to do so.

In the grand scheme of things, though, these are just minor mistakes in a fantastic display of metal mania. Metallica has been accused for a long time of selling out and being metal no longer. Yes, they have made mistakes (see 1996-2004), but they seem to be on track now.

They know what we want, and last night, they delivered.

They only have three more shows until they embark on their European tour. Hopefully, they’ll come back for another leg. And if they do, it’ll be totally worth it.

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