Heavy steel is a baton that has been handed on for generations now. Now, greater than ever, steel has become household leisure. On Saturday evening at NRG Stadium, the Metallica household reunion left ears ringing and hearts full, with a couple of scorch marks from hellacious pyro.
Metallica — 44 years into this — is a frenetic, multigenerational machine. 4 grey hairs from San Francisco that may nonetheless pack out a soccer stadium. The present lineup of James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo is the longest-running one within the band’s historical past.
Hetfield’s frenzied screech from 1981 is now a smoky, barrel-chested growl. Hammett’s metallic, exploratory guitar traces are part of the steel vocabulary, and Trujillo — nonetheless the brand new man — has been the sturdy thunder under all of it. Urlich’s dependable drumming is its stadium-honed coronary heart.
Openers Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera supplied direct help, with ST serving as a bracing thrash appetizer. Maintaining all of it within the household, Trujillo’s 21-year-old son Tye is now enjoying bass for ST, simply as Robert did within the ‘90s. The band’s set whizzed by earlier than most followers had been in a position to enter the constructing, however those that arrived early witnessed a masterclass in ‘80s hardcore thrash.
Texas sludge legends Pantera have been celebrating the lives of departed brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul because the group reformed in 2022. Collapsing in acrimony in 2001, the band and its followers by no means obtained a correct sendoff, and, with the violent capturing demise of Dimebag and Paul’s demise as a consequence of coronary heart illness, the present lineup solely options two unique members in lead singer Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown. Guitar hero Zakk Wyle, moving into Dimebag’s footwear, is a Corridor Of Fame avatar for Dimebag, maybe the one dwelling human that would have delivered the suitable riffs. Anthrax’s Charlie Benante now handles drumming duties.
It’s 2025, and I’m watching a Pantera pit on the ground of NRG Stadium from a cushty seat in the long run zone. Anselmo, seemingly ageless, stalked Metallica’s sprawling, jaggedly round stage barefoot and howling, splitting the distinction between Henry Rollins and Rob Halford. Heathen anthems “Stroll” and “Cowboys from Hell” nonetheless slice with precision, simply as they sounded within the adjoining Astroarena in 1995.
Earlier than Metallica hit the stage round 9 pm, bored followers handed the time by doing the wave in NRG Stadium, nevertheless it solely made a couple of laps earlier than truly fizzling out.
Kicking off with “Creeping Demise” from 1984’s Trip The Lightning, Metallica reveled in rumbling NRG Stadium’s foundations.
“For Whom The Bell Tolls” sounds as apocalyptic as ever, one of many early highlights of the evening. The band has embraced it’s Load and Reload period just lately, with the latter’s “The Reminiscence Stays” and “Gasoline” making setlist appearances. The group deftly stuffed in for the late Marianne Faithfull through the former. There’s nonetheless loads of love for ‘90s eyeliner Metallica.
Metallica’s 2023 album 72 Seasons noticed the quartet reconvening for a unfastened and unrelenting assortment of songs. “Lux Æterna” and “If Darkness Had a Son” have a slithery swing to them, borne from these well-known Metallica jam classes that typically seem on YouTube.
1991’s “Nothing Else Issues” remains to be a romantic ballad for metalheads, a Gen X wedding ceremony staple.
Few laborious rock bands can nonetheless pack a soccer stadium in 2025, which makes Metallica among the many final of a dying breed. All of their early ‘60s, they’re not not like a efficiency scorching rod workforce with 30 or so souped-up machines within the storage that solely they know the right way to drive. They simply need to take a couple of extra breaks than they used to in between laps. These 4 guys collectively nonetheless make magic by way of extraordinarily loud noises.
Closing out with “Grasp of Puppets and “Enter Sandman,” Metallica pushed Houstonians out into a damp Saturday evening, lined in one another’s sweat, trying ahead to the subsequent Metallica household reunion.
Setlist
Creeping Demise
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Trip the Lightning
The Reminiscence Stays
Lux Æterna
If Darkness Had a Son
Kirk and Rob Doodle (“Hit the Lights” and ZZ High’s “La Grange”)
The Day That By no means Comes
Gasoline
Orion
Nothing Else Issues
Unhappy however True
One
Search & Destroy
Grasp of Puppets
Enter Sandman
