Review of MTV Icon: Metallica

Well, I tuned into MTV Icon this year to see Metallica get some well earned respect and hopefully learn something I didn't know already. Well, first off, the documentary that was split up between performances and various interludes was rather boring. Why? Watch VH1's Behind The Music, it's all covered there. The documentary is basically for people unfamiliar with the band. The performances/covers were what mainly made the show worth watching. The show opens with Sum 41 doing an impressive medley of Metallica songs (including For Whom The Bell Tolls, Master of Puppets, and Enter Sandman). This performance was a huge surprise, because they pulled it off so seamlessly and almost effortlessly. Very impressive. Staind give us a nice, but short, acoustic cover of Nothing Else Matters. Avril Lavigne's band is in top form for Fuel (not surprising that she chooses something from Reload, I doubt she was alive when the Black Album came out) but really, she has no stage presence at all (do something with the hair). Limp Bizkit do a rap-metal rendition of Welcome Home (Sanitarium) which they actually pulled off very well. Although the solos are deleted, it's still an energetic, and (gulp) original performance. Snoop Dogg turns a good opportunity sour with his embarrassing talk-rap of Sad But True. This could have been interesting, but he falls flat and everyone seems bored. Korn come through as the winners though, with their stellar performance of One. They sound so natural performing that song and it got the best reaction from the audience, next to, that is Metallica themselves, who close out the show with a medley of older tracks and a new one: Frantic, which of course was cut off at the end by the credits (stupid mistake). The rest of the show is kind of a waste. I mean, Lisa Marie Presley presenting? What the hell was that?