metallica was joined by other heavy metal bands like AC/DC for a performance in september 1991, just a month after the last attempt to regain control of the country by the masses, and three months before the soviet union finally collapsed

it’s ironic because the song depicted here has some anti-religious undertones, and yet here they are, acting as cultural stewards of death and representing the cultural dominance of the west after the USSR gave up. over a million in the crowd, waving flags like the US/UK/confederate flags, all completely clueless as to the death and economic depravity that would soon beset them.

i had to be sad, now you have to haha. some of the youtube comments are also extremely depraved. you can also watch the first five minutes of the video that was produced about the performance here. heavy metal is pitched as essentially being anti-authoritarian lol

edit: wow, it just gets better and better. the exact same song was one of the many used to torture people at fucking guantanamo bay. james hetfield of metallica, when learning about the use of his music in torture of essentially random foreign nationals, laughed and said “we’ve been punishing our parents, our wives, our loved ones with this music for ever. why should the Iraqis be any different?”