Review: While going hard in Charlotte, Metallica also proves to be a big softie
As you might have heard — and I’m not sure there’s any way you couldn’t have, literally, if you were anywhere in the vicinity of uptown — Metallica dropped by Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday night.
And in many ways, it was a celebration of old-school heavy metal, featuring the most cherished of this particular heavy-metal band’s live-in-concert tropes.
There were columns of flames and fireworks shooting up from the in-the-round stage, and parades of skeletons and torrents of tombstones up on the cylinder-shaped screens towering above the field. Hard-charging songs with snarling lyrics about death (“Creeping Death”) and dying (“Ride the Lightning”) and killing (“Seek & Destroy”) and suicide (“Screaming Suicide”), backed by electric guitars creating sounds that sent chills up spines and drum beats that threatened to dislodge fillings in teeth.
By the second half of the show, there was even a good-old-fashioned mosh pit, which is not something I’ve seen break out at the stadium before (and — even more surprisingly — was tolerated by security*).
Yup, for a couple of very loud, very intense hours, Metallica was about as stereotypically Metallica as Metallica can get.
In all the best ways.
That meant lead guitarist Kirk Hammett’s black-nail-polished fingers flying through the bridge riff of opener “Creeping Death” at a pace so blistering it would make both Beavis and Butthead’s eyes bulge. It meant Rob Trujillo (a guy who already looks somewhat like a WWE wrestler) hitting the bass on song two, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” while crouched down and shifting his weight back and forth like a WWE wrestler loosening up before a match.
Also frontman James Hetfield speed-growling out “Givemefuel, givemefire, givemethatwhichIdesire, ooh,” followed immediately by the crackle of exploding pyrotechnics and big bursts of orange, vertical fire.
Also: that overhead shot of drummer Lars Ulrich, with the camera slowly coming in on him and his yellow-and-black Tama kit as he wagged his tongue, contorted his face, reared his head back, held up his index finger as if to say “Wait for iiiiiiiiiitt” ... right before Hetfield starts crushing the long, hard intro of “Master of Puppets.”
Saying all of this out loud — or, more accurately, writing it down and reading it back — makes the band and its metal machinations seem almost like a put-on. Like a caricature.
And it might be, if the songs weren’t so sonically sophisticated, if the execution wasn’t so expertly exquisite.
Even though all four of these guys are now over 60 years old, they somehow still seem to be operating at the peak of their powers. The rubbery-faced, backward-cap-wearing Ulrich in particular seems as athletic as ever, with a penchant for springing up from his stool, cocking his right hand back to behind his ear, then throwing all his weight into pounding a tom, or a crash, or a snare.
(Whatever fountain of youth you’re drinking from Lars, please, I’d like a few swigs.)
At the same time, they get it. They’re primarily a nostalgia act. To that end, the majority of the songs Metallica performed on Saturday night were all composed and written when original members Ulrich and Hetfield were still in their 20s. “We are grateful after 140-something years to still be here playing music for you guys,” joked Hetfield, who now has nothing but gray hair left on his head and his face but can still rip through “Master of Puppets” as cleanly as Hulk Hogan can remove a shirt.
In actuality, it’s been “just” 42 years since the release of the first song they ever recorded in the studio — “Seek & Destroy,” which they performed Saturday night to a thunderous ovation.
“I just say the word ‘SEEK’ —” Hetfield bellowed, and the crowd shouted “AND DESTROY!” back at him.
“Oh, my God, that will never, ever get old,” he said, shaking his head and smiling. “That fills my heart right up to here.”
If that sounds sentimental for a grizzled rock veteran who grew up on thrash-metal and morbid songwriting, well, you probably should get used to it. He’s gained maturity and perspective by going through hell and back a couple times on the way to getting clean and sober; and he’s developed even more of both via fatherhood and, more recently, grandfatherhood.
So the shows have darkness, but there’s plenty of lightness, too.
In Charlotte, all four band members spent more time smiling than you might expect out of heavy-metal heroes, and Hetfield at one point remarked that he prefers seeing “happy-out-of-your-mind” faces in the crowd as opposed to “scared” ones. He then noted “that everyone should say hello to Ella, ’cause she’s our Make-A-Wish person for this show. Ella, wherever you are, we’re so glad you’re here. And we hope to see you next time we come back. Thanks for coming here with your family.”
Moments later, he asked, “How many people here are parents?,” with a good portion of the crowd of 75,000 roaring in response. After following up with “How many of you parents brought your kids with you?,” the feedback was equally enthusiastic.
“Now that — that is beautiful. That is the ultimate bonding experience, I must say.”
(Shout-out, by the way, to the two elementary-school-age boys rocking out with their respective dads a row in front of me Saturday night; as well as to the little girl who — between clips of slack-jawed skeletons marching in slow motion across a war-torn landscape — was shown on the big screens exchanging smiles with Hetfield while being hoisted up by her dad during “One.” The ultimate bonding experience indeed.)
A few other highlights of the night:
- From the 100 level, the sound mix sounded as clean and balanced as I’ve heard at a BofA stadium show, and friends sitting in the 300 and 500 levels had similar experiences — particularly impressive for a genre that can often come off pretty muddy in a live setting.
- The band launched into one of its softest songs, “Nothing Else Matters,” at almost exactly 10 o’clock, at almost exactly the same time the softest rain started falling, with the stage and the video towers lit up in almost exactly the same Panther-blue color as the Duke Energy Plaza. Unlike the song, the rain never got heavy, and it stopped before it was over.
As soon as “Seek & Destroy” commenced, dozens of yellow-and-black beach balls each about the size of two refrigerators were dropped onto the field, suddenly making many of those in seats wish they had paid for G.A. floor tickets.
- After the band closed with its signature anthem, “Enter Sandman,” Hetfield got softhearted one last time. “Hey, if you’ve been drinking, give your keys to your friends, ’cause we need you, all right? We wanna see you again. ... Metallica loves you, Charlotte.” Added Ulrich, following several minutes of tossing guitar picks and drumsticks into the pit after the lights had come up: “We’ve been comin’ to Charlotte since the mid-’80s. But you know what? It gets better, and it gets better, and it gets better. ... We will see you — not soon enough.”
This was, by the way, Metallica’s fourth time playing in Charlotte since 2004. That’s an average of one visit every seven years. Should that much time pass before they return again, both Hetfield and Ulrich would be 68.
So, fellas? All those feelings are mutual.
(*Postscript: From Section 102, I did indeed observe security staff standing idly by as several concertgoers created a lively mosh pit on the north side of the field while Metallica performed. However, following the original publication of this review, I received an email from an individual who provided evidence of his ejection from the venue for joining in on what sounded like a pretty typical mosh pit early in opening act Pantera’s set. Anyway, I can’t say for sure where or how security drew the line out there on Saturday night, but wanted to add this for context. ...)
Metallica’s setlist
1. “Creeping Death”
2. “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
3. “Ride the Lightning”
4. “The Memory Remains”
5. “Lux Æterna”
6. “Screaming Suicide”
7. “Devil’s Lettuce”/“Broken, Beat & Scarred”
8. “The Day That Never Comes”
9. “Fuel”
10. “Orion”
11. “Nothing Else Matters”
12. “Sad but True”
13. “One”
14. “Seek & Destroy”
15. “Master of Puppets”
16. “Enter Sandman”
This story was originally published June 1, 2025 at 10:29 AM.
