Metallica Opens Sphere Residency With Rarities-Heavy Set — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Metallica opened their 24-show "Life Burns Faster" residency at the Las Vegas Sphere with a "no repeat" format, playing twice weekly without repeating a single song in a given week through 13 March 2027.
- On night one the band skipped "Enter Sandman" in favor of deep cuts including "The Call of Ktulu," 2016's "Now That We're Dead," and 2023's "Lux Æterna," bookending the set with "Battery" and the title track from Master of Puppets.
- The Sphere's wraparound visuals featured a giant Cthulhu creature stomping through Vegas during "The Call of Ktulu," an audience-view electric chair during "Ride the Lightning," and each band member projected onto a cross for the closing "Master of Puppets."
- All four members are in their early 60s, yet the review praises Lars Ulrich's elastic drumming, James Hetfield's vocal range from snarl to ballad, Kirk Hammett's intricate guitar work, and Robert Trujillo's five-string bass.
- After the crowd belted the chorus of "Nothing Else Matters," Hetfield responded with "You're absolutely right," prompting a fan nearby to clutch his head in what the reviewer describes as rapture, pain, or both.
- The show closed with a "tight, faithful" Seek and Destroy accompanied by early-days footage, and ended with house lights on as Trujillo and Hammett tossed guitar picks and Ulrich carefully handed out drumsticks.
Why it matters: A 24-show commitment at the Sphere through March 2027 gives Metallica a rare fixed-venue runway to play the "no repeat" format, turning each pair of shows into a distinct event and rewarding deep-catalog fans over greatest-hits tourists — a business and artistic model few bands of their scale can sustain.
Ask SkimNews
