A common theme in Metallica's latest album "Death Magnetic" is the inevitable demise we all face, living life with death hanging overhead.

And a symbol of death was literally hanging overhead during Metallica's performance at the Sprint Center in Kansas City Saturday night, where nearly 14,000 people witnessed the an old-school metal show where rock icons performed the genre with maximum toughness and precision.

Where today's stage performances are defined by technology and the size of video monitors, Metallica's stage set-up wreaked of vintage metal, with silver, metal coffins the size of stretch limos hanging over the head, pyrotechnics and lasers accentuating the large rectangle center stage that you could land a helicopter on. It left plenty of room for navigation, especially singer/guitarist James Hetfield, not evenly remotely showing his age while running to one of eight microphones to sing, riff and scowl to different sections of the crowd during the two hour set.

The sound occasionally held them back, with some vocal effects muddying up the mix and the Sprint Center having trouble containing the group's ear-shattering volume. Overall, Hetfield's vocals were vicious and spot-on all night but played second fiddle to the band's flexing of their musical muscles.

Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett continues to execute guitar solos that defy belief. Bassist Robert Trujillo prowled the stage like a caveman with drenched locks providing proper low-end rumble, while drummer Lars Ulrich continues to add double-bass drum propulsion, even on "Kill 'Em All"-era tracks like "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Motorbreath" that haven't lost a beat since their conception 27 years ago.

The setlist was relatively light on vintage '80s Metallica tracks. The band played four "Black Album" songs and five tracks from "Death Magnetic" (or as Hetfield referred to it "The Coffin Album") with "The Day That Never Comes" being the only track that got a few lit lighters and sing-along moments instead of the traditional fist pumping/head bobbing. But the older tracks, like the epic "Master of Puppets," "One" and the mid-tempo crusher "Sad But True" sent the crowd, somewhat restrained by Metallica standards, into a more common frenzy.

The band encored with a few fan favorites, opening the encore with the Misfits cover "Last Caress" and closing with the classic "Seek and Destroy," where the band brought the house lights up and black, Metallica-enblazoned beach balls dropped on the crowd as they yelled along to every word. Hetfield referred to himself as a "deaf old man," the band's youthful enthusiasm was evident through the entire show and afterward as they spent 10 minutes throwing out handfuls of guitar picks and drum sticks to fans that didn't want to leave.

Ulrich got on the mic and asked the crowd if they should do this "more than once every four f*****g years?" Based on the random cheering of exiting fans for a concert long finished, the answer is a resounding "Yes."

Setlist: That Was Just Your Life, The End of the Line, Harvester of Sorrow, Ride the Lightning, One, Broken, Beat and Scarred, Cyanide, Sad But True, Until It Sleeps, Wherever I May Roam, The Day That Never Comes, Master of Puppets, Fight Fire With Fire, Nothing Else Matters, Enter Sandman; Encore: Last Caress, Motorbreath, Seek and Destroy