Metallica Unleashes Cthulhu at Sphere, and Vegas Gets Its Ass Kicked

A giant Cthulhu, the return of “…And Justice for All” and two nights with no repeated songs. Metallica’s Life Burns Faster residency has plenty going on beneath the expensive machinery.

Metallica looked at that enormous glowing ball in Las Vegas and apparently decided it needed a fucking sea monster. The band opened its Life Burns Faster residency at Sphere on October 1, 2026, with “Battery,” bringing thrash into a room that can make the ceiling look like it is having a nervous breakdown. James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo are the first metal band to play the venue, according to Stereogum’s opening-night report. As introductions go, subtlety was clearly told to wait outside.

The image getting the attention is the gigantic Lovecraftian creature accompanying “The Call of Ktulu.” Pitchfork’s footage roundup documents the monster alongside tombstones and stained-glass imagery, while the San Francisco Chronicle’s on-site review describes flooded landscapes and ruined buildings. There is something wonderfully ridiculous about buying a concert ticket and finding yourself trapped inside an elder god’s aquarium. For a band whose music already carries dread, violence and scale, though, the choice makes sense. An instrumental can tell a story without somebody helpfully pointing at the monster and announcing that things have become rather unpleasant.

My ears are more interested in “…And Justice for All.” Stereogum reports that Metallica played the title track from their 1988 album for the first time since 2014. Twelve years is a hell of a wait for a song with that much anger still rattling around inside it. You can install every screen on Earth and still lose a crowd if the set feels like somebody exported the same playlist again. Bringing that sprawling, demanding beast back gives longtime listeners something to argue about, celebrate and actually listen to beneath the visual bombardment.

The band’s official October 1 setlist confirms “The Shortest Straw,” “Creeping Death,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “Lux Æterna,” with “Master of Puppets” closing the night. It also lists a Kirk and Rob duet. That gives the opener room for punishment, breathing space and newer material without pretending Metallica stopped existing after the albums everybody keeps tattooing on themselves. A residency can turn into a very expensive museum if nobody challenges the crowd’s expectations. There is enough movement in these choices to keep that possibility interesting.

From a performer’s perspective, this is the dangerous part of a production that big: the audience can end up watching the building while the musicians become furniture. The same problem shows up in wrestling when an entrance gets a bigger reaction than anything the person does after reaching the ring. I love spectacle. I also want the human beings underneath it to give me a reason to care. The footage and setlist make this opener worth examining because the visual language belongs to the songs, rather than some random animation left running behind a band.

That does not make a phone clip a substitute for being in the room. It cannot tell us how the sound hit from every seat or whether the playing stayed tight throughout the night, and this is a news reaction to the published footage and reporting, not an eyewitness concert review. The useful question is what the production does for the music. “The Call of Ktulu” already has menace without a screen. Giving that menace a physical presence can deepen the experience; letting the screen swallow the performance would waste it.

Metallica’s official residency announcement confirms 24 shows through March 2027 and the No Repeat Weekends format. Fans attending the paired Thursday and Saturday performances will not hear the same song twice. The next show is October 3. That is a serious promise when the visuals are built around specific songs, and it gives the second night an actual reason to exist beyond selling the first night again with a different date printed on the ticket.

I would still tell anybody lucky enough to get inside to put the damn phone down for at least part of it. There will be footage. There will be another angle of the tentacles. What you cannot download later is the moment a room full of people recognizes a song they have waited years to hear and reacts before anybody has time to polish the response. That is the part I want from Metallica in a place this ambitious. Give me the monster, absolutely. Then give me four musicians making the crowd feel something while the monster watches.