METALLICA launched their "Life Burns Faster" residency at Sphere in Las Vegas on Thursday night, October 1 — the first of 24 shows the band will play inside the 17,600-capacity venue between now and March 13, 2027.
The opening night ran 16 songs, starting with "Battery" and "Creeping Death" and ending with the traditional one-two of "Seek & Destroy" and "Master Of Puppets". In between came two cuts from 72 Seasons ("Lux Æterna" and "Now That We're Dead"), "The Shortest Straw" from ...And Justice For All alongside that album's title track, "The Call Of Ktulu" and a Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo doodle.
Fan-filmed footage of the opener:
Setlist, October 1, 2026:
- Battery
- Creeping Death
- Now That We're Dead
- Sad But True
- The Shortest Straw
- Wherever I May Roam
- The Day That Never Comes
- ...And Justice For All
- Kirk Hammett & Robert Trujillo doodle
- Nothing Else Matters
- The Call Of Ktulu
- Lux Æterna
- Ride The Lightning
- The Memory Remains
- Seek & Destroy
- Master Of Puppets
The band play Thursdays and Saturdays, with a different setlist each night. The run was first announced as eight October dates and later grew to 24: November 5 and 7; January 28 and 30; February 4, 6, 18, 20, 25 and 27; and March 4, 6, 11 and 13.
Sphere, which opened in September 2023 with a U2 residency, wraps the audience in a 16K LED screen and runs a HOLOPLOT-powered immersive sound system. Lars Ulrich has said the idea took hold about 12 seconds into U2's opening night there: "We have to do this. It's completely uncharted territory."
The residency sits alongside the band's ongoing "M72" world tour, which has drawn more than four million fans since spring 2023 and, as we reported last month, now extends into 2027 with twelve more North American stadium shows.