LAS VEGAS — Metallica turned the Sphere into a sea-monster nightmare on opening night, unleashing a towering Cthulhu across the venue’s wraparound screen during a thunderous performance of “The Call of Ktulu” that left fans staring upward as the band paid tribute to late bassist Cliff Burton.
The metal icons launched their “Life Burns Faster” residency on October 1 with a career-spanning set that mixed thrash classics and rarities. Midway through the show, the instrumental from 1984’s Ride the Lightning arrived with a full-scale visual assault: a massive, tentacled creature with serrated wings rose from the darkness, its form shifting across the curved LED surface that surrounds the audience. Blue and purple light cut through simulated rain and smoke as the monster loomed over the stage, then appeared to take flight before the sequence closed.
James Hetfield dedicated the song to Burton, who died in a tour-bus accident in Sweden in September 1986. “In honor of our fallen brother,” the frontman told the crowd. “We love you.” The timing landed almost exactly 40 years after Burton’s death. The track itself carries songwriting credits for Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Burton, and early member Dave Mustaine.
Metallica became the first heavy-metal band to play the Sphere, the Las Vegas venue known for its immersive dome technology. Reviews described the production as dense and varied, with other songs matched to visuals that included stained-glass cathedral scenes, falling hammers, and lightning strikes. The opening-night set began with “Battery”, its first appearance as an opener in more than a decade, and closed with “Master of Puppets.” Rarities included “…And Justice for All,” not played since 2014, and “Now That We’re Dead,” absent from setlists since 2021.
The residency runs 24 shows through March 2027 in paired Thursday-Saturday “No Repeat Weekends,” with the band promising different setlists each night of a given weekend. Tickets for the run sold out. Fan video of the Cthulhu sequence spread quickly online after the show, capturing the creature’s scale against the packed floor and the band performing beneath it.
For a group that has spent more than four decades building stadium-sized spectacle, the Sphere date marked a new technical peak, and a pointed nod to the bassist whose bass lines still anchor one of their most ominous instrumentals.
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