Metallica kicked off their M72 World Tour at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena on Thursday, beginning a sprawling road trip that will run through late 2024.
You can see the set list and videos from the performance below.
The metal giants kicked off their 16-song set with ”Orion” — their first time using the Master of Puppets instrumental as a show opener since 2011, according to setlist.fm. Other mainstays such as ”Master of Puppets,” “Battery,” “Fade to Black,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Sad but True” also appeared.
Several classic songs were notably omitted on opening night, including “Enter Sandman” and “One” (the band played no tracks off … And Justice for All). Metallica is playing two shows in each city on this tour, changing set lists and opening acts each night to create a “No Repeat Weekend,” so those songs could still appear at their next show.
Watch Metallica Play ‘Lux Æterna’ at M72 World Tour Kickoff
Watch Metallica Play ‘Fuel’ at M72 World Tour Kickoff
The band also played three songs off its new album 72 Seasons: “Lux Æterna” and the live debuts of “Screaming Suicide” and “Sleepwalk My Life Away.” Metallica released their 11th album two weeks ago, marking their first full-length since 2016’s Hardwired … to Self-Destruct. The LP debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, ending a chart-topping streak that dated back to their 1991 self-titled album.
James Hetfield described the album’s concept in an official statement: “Seventy-two seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
Watch Metallica Play ‘Seek & Destroy’ at M72 World Tour Kickoff
Watch Metallica Play ‘Screaming Suicide’ at M72 World Tour Kickoff
Metallica will return to the Johan Cruyff Arena on Saturday with Floor Jansen and Ice Nine Kills in place of Architects and Mammoth WVH. Other support acts on different legs of the tour include Pantera, Greta Van Fleet and Five Finger Death Punch.
Watch Metallica Play ‘Sleepwalk My Life Away’ at M72 World Tour Kickoff
Metallica, 4/27/23, Johan Cruyff Arena, Amsterdam
1. “Orion”
2. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
3. “Holier Than Thou”
4. “King Nothing”
5. “Lux Æterna”
6. “Screaming Suicide”
7. “Fade to Black”
8. “Sleepwalk My Life Away”
9. “Nothing Else Matters”
10. “Sad but True”
11. “The Day That Never Comes”
12. “Ride the Lightning”
13. “Battery”
14. “Fuel”
15. “Seek & Destroy”
16. “Master of Puppets”
Metallica Albums Ranked
There are moments of indecision when compiling this list. After all, we really could have had – for the first time ever – a three-way tie for first.