WHILE SMATTERINGS OF heavy bands had played Glastonbury over the years - the likes of Deftones, Tool, Rage Against The Machine and Nine Inch Nails making sure alternative music was represented across the 90s and early 2000s - metal always felt like the missing piece of the puzzle at the world’s biggest festival. That all finally and definitively changed in 2014 when Metallica became the first metal band to headline the Pyramid Stage. It was a controversial move for some - would a metal band really be embraced by a predominantly mainstream crowd? - but all doubters were quickly put in their place within the opening 10 seconds of a raucous Creeping Death. What followed was one of the loudest, most fun and unique Glasto headline sets ever, and it paved the way for metal to become fully assimilated into Glastonbury lore.
In the six years since, we’ve seen the likes of Motörhead, Gojira, Bring Me The Horizon, Venom Prison, Employed To Serve, Babymetal, Ho99o9, Entombed A.D. and Napalm Death all embraced with open arms at Worthy Farm. Metallica’s set was even broadcast in full during the huge BBC Glastonbury celebrations that took place across what should have been the festival’s 50th anniversary event last month. It was a timely reminder that when Metallica say they give you heavy, they mean it.