TORONTO -- Fireballs, explosions and over two hours of relentless heavy metal riffs.

Or, for Metallica, just punching in for another day in their big noisy office before their predominantly black T-shirt wearing, post-mullet customers.

Whether it was lead singer James Hetfield's constant rapid-fire riffs or drummer Lars Ulrich's savage assault on the skins, the band showed last night at the near capacity Air Canada Centre that they're older, a tad wiser but no less powerful and punishing as yesteryear.

The quartet, near the homestretch of its Madly In Anger With You world tour, were heavy from beginning to end and leaned heavily towards older albums like Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets and Metallica (Black Album).

From the opening notes of Blackened, which was preceded by footage of the classic Western film The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, the group tore through each song as guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Rob Trujillo, with his baseball cap on backwards, did laps around the stage.

"Give me M, give me E, give me T," Hetfield said prior to ripping into Fuel from 1997's Reload which led nicely into the slightly slower but crowd-pleasing Wherever I May Roam.

"We consider you another instrument," Hetfield said while Ulrich stuck out his tongue and grabbed a certain part of his anatomy. The air seemed to go out of the show briefly when they brought out Frantic from last year's St. Anger album.

Fortunately it was a brief miscue as the thick and crunchy Sad But True had Hetfield drowned out by the thousands of backup singers.

The stage, which looked like a large square jigsaw puzzle without its border from above, provided fans a great view all around. It also revolved, albeit a few feet every other song.

Perhaps the pacing of the show was the band's biggest strength with slower tunes complementing those more physically demanding. Early on Hammett did a guitar solo while Trujillo would do a bass solo entitled Junglessence later.

The highlight -- and they're were a few -- had to be the lengthy Master Of Puppets, the title track from the 1986 album.

Sounding just as furious as it has hundreds of times before, the tune had both Hetfield and Ulrich working double-time.

Leaving the stage to more explosions and eye candy, Metallica returned (shock!) for a series of encores. Looking like they were in the tenth round of a heavyweight fight, the band slowed things down again with the sing-along Nothing Else Matters.

A ridiculous amount of tinnitus-causing explosions later, they returned for One and Enter Sandman, the latter with Trujillo briefly playing on the floor of the venue.

On the downside, Metallica has never been one to shy away from self-promotion. But plugging their Some Kind Of Monster documentary with a trailer during intermission seemed a bit much even for these guys.

Opening up for Metallica was Boston nu metal-cum-rock band Godsmack.