What a great schedule that tour is for the band. Basically they go out and do 7 or 8 shows, then go back home for a while. Then repeat. Must be nice to be able to book tours like that!
Yeah, but with all that down time for practicing just imagine how awesome Lars is gonna sound.
You're joking of course but he says he does practice more these days. You can tell. he's not suddenly Dave Lombardo but his playing is a LOT better recently.
I can't remember the last time I heard him make a big error - not like back in 2006 where he would come off the rails once a gig at least.
I used to listen to gigs back in the day just waiting for " the Lars fuck up ". Nowadays his playing is a lot stronger overall.
He still speeds up a bit live but they're playing the songs slightly slower than usual so that helps too.
EDIT
I also never really thought of Hardwired / Atlas as like Battery / Master with regards to sequencing - but Atlas, Rise! is a much better attempt at a long Master Of Puppets style song
than " Just A Bullet Away " was - with it's clean middle section for good measure.