THE world's heaviest rock band returned to Dublin last night, dazzling the crowd with pyrotechnics, pummelling them with gut ripping rock and nearly blowing themselves up in the process. Their figure eight stage took up a huge space in the middle of the Point and roadies, technicians and security personnel swarmed around the elaborate structure. Into this hive of heavy metal activity stepped the four members of Metallica, and without even waiting for the lights to dim, they tore into their first bout of headbanging rock n' roll.

Only three songs in, and flames and firecrackers were going off all over the gaff, almost drowning out the din of guitars only the drums of Lars Ulrich could compete with this incendiary sound.

"Do you want heavy?" screamed singer James Hetfield, and the answer could be clearly heard reverberating around the venue. We got everything from the quickfire crack of Whiplash to the canine cruelty of Ain't My Bitch, with plenty of spit and fire in between.

With so much stage to play with, the band were able to move freely around and interact with the crowd bass player Jason Newstead went for the hands on approach, right up to the crowd barrier, letting the front row feel the sweat.

As the band got into its stride - and Metallica's stride is like a panzer division on the move - the pyrotechnics were turned up to warzone level, which was surprising, since James Hetfield was badly burnt in Canada in 1992 when a stage prop exploded. The possibility of serious injury began to loom large among the blinding lights and earth shattering explosions onstage.

The band kept the pressure up for Nothing Else Matters, Until It Sleeps and Wherever I May Roam, ending the set with some fast and furious old stuff from Kill Em All and Ride The Lightning.

It was during Master Of Puppets that things began to go wrong, and a small fire which broke out below the stage right under Hetfield's feet was hurriedly extinguished. The band carried on regardless, hitting into the finale of Enter Sannet - man when, to everyone's horror, the special effects went out of control, and the giant onstage gantries collapsed, leaving one technician swinging from the ceiling of The Point, and another running around in flames. It was all an elaborate and entertaining hoax, a heavy metal disaster movie brought to you live, but for a moment there...