Metallica kicked off the North American leg of their M72 world tour last week on August 4th & 6th, part of their promised no-repeat weekends at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. These legends somehow raise the bar with their live shows, as Metal Insider will soon unveil extensive experiences throughout the trek. While we’re sad to have missed out on their New Jersey and this weekend’s Montreal shows, and for all who were unable to attend or want to relive the experience, Metallica always finds a way to connect with the entire Metallica family with pro-shot videos, live statistical reports, extensive photo galleries from some of the best photographers from across the globe (Ross Halfin, Jeff Yeager, Brett Murray, Lee Jeffries) and more! With that being said, the icons have shared pro-shot videos from night one (4th) for the classic track “Seek & Destroy,” taken from 1983’s Kill Em All, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary, and their live debut of “Shadows Follow,” from their latest effort, 72 Seasons. For fun facts, statistics, and more, such as their first time performing at Met Life stadium since May 14th, 2017, first time performing “Harvester of Sorrow” and “Battery” in NJ since 2003, and more, check out Metallica’s own statistical report from August 4th here and August 6th at this location.
In other fun facts/observations, many have assumed Kirk Hammett accidentally butchered the introduction to Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” on August 4th. While Setlist.fm where fans are welcome to write setlists, report on their attendance, and take no prisoners when someone messes up, there’s a potential theory this was intentional. The credit for the observation goes to Testament’s Alex Skolnick (see within the comments of his Facebook post below), which was initially in response to an article on Yahoo Entertainment. While we think Skolnick meant Hammett butchering the intro to “Nothing Else Matters” at 2022’s Boston Calling (or maybe there are more alleged “incidents”), it seems this could be a notorious act. Hammett and everyone playing live has had moments of “slipping up,” that’s the fun part and raw joy of watching live rather than exhaustedly planned out, or being caught lip-synching, etc. If you want flawless, listen to the record—everyone’s human, at least for now, with the growth of AI. That said, a small clue makes us believe this has turned out to be a run-on joke rather than another slip-up. Let’s face it, Metallica is always full of surprises. After every show, Metallica shares their setlist on Instagram, the entire setlist, which includes doodles. Looking carefully, you will see between “If Darkness Had a Son” and “Fade To Black,” a Kirk and Rob doodle is written on the sheet. And while we’re used to seeing the two doodle, there’s a “KH doodle” written right above “Nothing Else Matters,” which makes us believe this was intentional, and Skolnick’s observation is likely correct. We’ll see what other tricks are up Metallica’s sleeves throughout the rest of the tour. We will definitely take note of it in the next coming weeks!
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Any Metallica superfan will know that’s not all for these gods. Earlier this week, on Wednesday (9th), the second episode of their new podcast, The Metallica Report, was released, which you can check out below:
