Metallica recently wrapped up a week long stand at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, and now you can own a recording of the first night of this milestone event via download at LiveMetallica.Com.  Each night featured surprise special guests, obscure songs and rarely or never before played cover songs. 

On the opening night of this 30th anniversary bash, the band were joined by Saxon's Biff Byford for a run through 'Motorcycle Man' from Saxon's killer 'Wheels Of Steel' album. More heroes of the NWOBHM (that's New Wave Of British Heavy Metal for those who don't speak abbreviation) in the form of Brian Tatler and Sean Harris were on board to blast through four of their Diamond Head gems including the classic 'Am I Evil?'.

Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted also made an appearance, as did Metal Church guitarist John Marshall, who might be better known to the band's fans as the guitar tech who stood in for James Hetfield on guitar after the infamous pyro incident in 1992 where Hetfield was seriously burned. Members of the classical combo Apocalyptica also joined in the celebration.

Among the other surprises was the performance of a previously unheard song called 'Hate Train' from the 'Death Magnetic' sessions. The opening show runs just under three hours long, features 22 songs and is available as MP3, Flac or Alac. The other nights of the celebratory run will be available for download shortly.  Nor is this a one-time shot, the band actually offers up a pretty large catalog of live recordings for download on their website.

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