Metallica opens Life Burns Faster Sphere residency in Las Vegas
Night one turned …And Justice for All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets covers into immersive dome visuals; Night 2’s unique set lands Saturday.
What opened: Metallica kicked off its Life Burns Faster residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Thursday night, Rolling Stone reported Oct. 2. The band used the venue’s 160,000-square-foot screen that stretches 240 feet tall for album-cover animations during the title tracks of …And Justice for All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets. The residency name comes from a lyric in “Master of Puppets.” Metallica’s official site lists a 24-show run of No Repeat Weekends — unique Thursday and Saturday sets — with dates stretching into March 2027.
The visuals: For “…And Justice for All,” the band animated the broken Lady Justice statue fans call “Doris,” building from halls of justice to a cylindrical jail and a crumbling statue that appeared ready to fall on the crowd, Rolling Stone said. “Ride the Lightning” flipped the electric-chair motif so wooden armrests flanked the audience with an electrode cap overhead and lightning across the dome. The closer, “Master of Puppets,” stretched illustrator Don Brautigam’s cross headstones up the screens until crosses flipped, fell, and left holes in the dome as the band played on.
Night 1 set and Saturday: Rolling Stone said Night 1 leaned on the Black Album and Ride the Lightning and included “Battery,” “Creeping Death,” “Sad but True,” “…And Justice for All,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “The Call of Ktulu,” “Ride the Lightning,” “Seek & Destroy,” and “Master of Puppets.” Hits such as “Enter Sandman,” “One,” and “Fade to Black” were held for Saturday’s second unique set. Metallica.com framed the Sphere run as No Repeat Weekends: fans who attend both nights of a weekend will not hear the same song twice.
What this means: Metal’s biggest band is treating the Sphere as a new catalog stage — album art as architecture — with 24 chances through March to remix decades of material without repeating a weekend setlist.