Metallica’s current “M72” world tour, with its massive in-the-round “Snakepit” stage, is a spectacle free of one traditional metal element: walls of guitar amplifiers. In a new interview, James Hetfield’s guitar tech, Chad Zaemisch, revealed that this high-tech, amp-less setup wasn’t just a style choice, but a solution to a unique problem the band faced in 2013.
Speaking in a new issue of Guitar World, Zaemisch explained that the band’s hand was forced when they booked their one-off “Freeze ‘Em All” concert in Antarctica. The unique environmental restrictions of the continent meant traditional, high-volume guitar cabinets were banned.
“We were kind of forced to come up with a solution for playing a show in Antarctica where we couldn’t have speakers,” Zaemisch said (via Guitar.com). “For environmental reasons, they didn’t want any noise pollution.”
The band and its crew turned to digital amp modelers from Fractal to replicate their sound electronically. “We had a lot of help right off the bat. Matt Picone from Fractal came and got all our sounds started,” Zaemisch noted, adding that it “was definitely a learning curve for us and the band.”
Zaemisch credited James Hetfield’s open-mindedness for the band’s full adoption of the new technology. While the switch was born of necessity, the crew and the band quickly realized its practical benefits.
“Once we got through that, everybody started to look at how convenient it was,” Zaemisch said.
The most significant benefit, however, was visual. Removing the “wall of speakers” completely unshackled the band’s stage designers, allowing for the massive, video-heavy productions that define their modern shows.
“The people in set design realised that if we don’t have this wall of speakers anymore, we have all of these other things available to us,” Zaemisch explained.
He argued that modern audiences expect a larger-than-life spectacle, which the old setup physically prevented.
“Everybody’s all about content these days, and not a lot of people want to watch a band stand in front of their amp line with nothing else going on,” he stated. “Now we can use large video screens. It opens up a lot more opportunities to do different things.”
This technological shift is what makes the ambitious, circular “Snakepit” stage on the “M72” tour logistically possible.
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