Four years on tour: How Metallica rocks the world

"Life's rough out here," James Hetfield barks into the microphone, "but we never stop, we never give up, because we're Metallica!" That was in 1983, when the band's star was rising above the hard rock world. "Whiplash" was the key song on Metallica's debut album, "Kill 'Em All." It spoke of the band's closeness and the devotion of its fans, and offered a brutal guide to headbanging, shaking your hair, and swinging your head until your neck cracks.

"Whiplash" translates as whiplash; the song was the big bang of furious thrash metal at the time. Never before had so much energy been felt in the realm of hard rock. "Thrash" came from the "threshing" of grain with flails, translated to the "thrashing" of instruments. A powerful sound, fed by classic metal, with elements of punk and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal à la Iron Maiden. The bold prophecy of Hetfield, who wrote the song with drummer Lars Ulrich, truly came true. Metallica never stopped – until today.

On May 23, Hetfield, Ulrich, Kirk Hammett (lead guitar), and Robert Trujillo (bass, in the band since 2003) will perform the first of two concerts at Philadelphia's football stadium. It will be a play-it-out-very-very-loud show on a donut-shaped circular stage with a mosh pit in the donut hole—exhausting for the quartet on stage and the fans in the arena.

As always, the drums will thunder along with the guitars. When Ulrich launches his monstrous percussion into orbit (four sets are set up on the indoor stage), his feet on the pedals get hot during high-speed double-base kicking, decibel blockers in your earcups are recommended. What penetrates them is still like a tomahawk to your skull.

Metallica originally planned to end their M72 tour, which began in Amsterdam in 2023, on December 6 in Abu Dhabi. Now, a fourth year is being added: Metallica's 2026 live season begins in Athens on May 6, 2026. Three shows in Germany are also planned—on May 22 and 24 at Frankfurt's Deutsche Bank Park and on May 30 at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

Why do they put themselves through this? "Because we can," said guitarist Kirk Hammett in an RND interview in 2023. And because "year" isn't meant to be taken so literally, of course. The gigs aren't a daily chore anymore; there are one to several days between individual concerts—as with many "old" bands—and the band often has several months of recovery time between individual "tour wings."

Discipline is also paramount over excess. "Exercising and eating vegetables is the new rock 'n' roll!" Ulrich told the "Berliner Zeitung" 12 years ago as the band's motto. Singer James Hetfield overcame a relapse into alcoholism in 2019 through therapy – he has been sober for five years. And Metallica aren't all that old, either. Hetfield and Ulrich are 61, Kirk Hammett 62, and Trujillo 60.

Playing hard and live is still possible even at a much more advanced age, and when it becomes ridiculous, the fans decide with their feet. AC/DC, who extended their last year's tour into 2025, has figurehead Angus Young at 70, and singer Brian Johnson at 77. Scorpions singer Klaus Meine turns 77 on May 25, followed by guitarist Rudolf Schenker in August. Bruce Springsteen turns 76 in September and is in his third year of a world tour. The average length of the "Boss's" sweaty shows: two and three-quarter hours.

And the core of the Rolling Stones? Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are 81, Ronnie Wood 77. However, the Stones have postponed the European leg of their "Hackney Diamonds" tour, originally scheduled for this year, to 2026. Rod Stewart (80), Wood's former bandmate in the Faces, has extended his "One Last Time" tour to 2026, and there are rumors of a "Very Last Time" tour in 2027. Of course, Rod The Mod will perform pop and ballads alongside rock, occasionally slipping backstage to catch his breath and change his clothes, while leaving the show to the six attractive ladies in his band.

"Metallica isn't the only stadium-touring band whose members are over 60," wrote the New York Times in 2023, "but not every band makes its living by regularly belting out songs that exceed 190 beats per minute." That was after the first US show of the M72 tour at the MetLife Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in front of 80,000 enthusiastic fans, mostly dressed in black.

"Stadium-shaking," the Asbury Park Press wrote in its review. Entertainment website Hollywoodsoapbox described it as "thrash heaven": "They rode a supersonic wave throughout the entire concert."

The reason for Metallica's appeal is their sustained power. Metallica live has always been the promise of exhaustion (for the band) and catharsis (for the audience), a promise that continues to be delivered for two hours every night. Since the days of the album "St. Anger" (2003), Metallica has also changed their setlist from gig to gig, which increases the excitement in the audience, even leads to fan tourism, and, according to Ulrich, is a safeguard that the musicians "don't go on autopilot."

The majority of major rock and pop acts, often constrained by their stage equipment, stick to a fixed sequence of songs. Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and the grunge heroes Pearl Jam practiced free-form music-making every day. And Metallica: If they play two shows in the same city, like next year's in Frankfurt, you can even look forward to two completely different setlists.

As with all "historic" bands, old fans are drawn to their own past. In Metallica's early days, rock music was still at the core of being young, separating generations and defining the scene. Baby boomers, therefore, aren't just celebrating the band at a Metallica concert, but also their own lives.

The fact that Generation Z music fans are also attracted to concerts by older and more traditional bands is due to their parents' record collection and/or a longing to connect with the icons of rock, the roots of their own favorite bands. Countless young rock bands, for example, still cite the Beatles as their guiding light. And so, at least once in your life, you have to see Paul McCartney, the man who wrote "Hey Jude" and "Penny Lane."

Even James Hetfield loves the Beatles and, as he revealed to Rolling Stone in 2014, occasionally played their ballad "In My Life" during solo performances. And like the Fab Four, Metallica is a band that searched for sounds. From thrash metal, their path led them back in time. A prime example is the 1996 Metallica album "Load," of which an early anniversary box set will be released on June 13th. "Load"—like the "Black Album" before it—opened the doors to a mainstream audience for Metallica. Metallica were suddenly playing alternative rock, blues rock, southern rock, and even adding a dash of country to the 79-minute melange.

The band's hardcore community took a while to catch on; some remained alienated; the music magazine "Rolling Stone" saw a "bridge from old-school biker rock to the darker side of post-grunge." But the masses bought the album, rocketing it to number 1 on the Billboard charts, where it stayed for four weeks.

"This album (...) is, to me, what Metallica is about," Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone at the time, "about exploring different things. The moment you stop exploring, you should just sit down and die."

And Metallica continued searching, enlisting a symphony orchestra to accompany them, or covering the Irish folk classic "Whisky in the Jar," which Thin Lizzy had once instilled in rock. Perhaps the mainstream audience would have preferred if the Californians had made another cover album instead of "Black Album II"—perhaps with the "Irish (Metal) Rover." But they also made do with "St. Anger" (2003), the band's return to the band name.

But anyone who saw "Some Kind of Monster" the following year, perhaps the most candid film ever released by a rock band, got the impression, given the grim "St. Anger" sessions, that the band had now reached its "let it be" phase. Exhausted, helpless, singer James Hetfield was reduced to a "lunch-to-4 p.m." studio worker, more interested in family than rock 'n' roll. "We had reached a crossroads," Ulrich later said of this period.

The tornado of the follow-up album, "Death Magnetic" (2008), was a miracle, wrought by producer Rick Rubin, who had initiated Johnny Cash's magnificent late work in 1994 – with a return to his original sound. Now he did the same for Metallica. When all else fails, the roots help.

So Metallica are back to thrash metal. Their current album, "72 Seasons" (2023), is the name of the 18 springs, summers, autumns, and winters that one spends, at best, in the care of one's parents, at worst, rejected or loved, shaped or broken, until adulthood.

Until you're free... and yet forever a prisoner of your experiences. A relevant story for fans of all ages. In Hetfield's case, the 72 seasons were less than pleasant. But they led to the creation of the Metallica sound. "Full speed or nothing!" Hetfield shouts in the song "Lux Aeterna."

"The show is over / the metal is gone," says the end of "Whiplash," the big-bang song that opens many gigs on the M72 tour. Before the metal truly fades away in Philadelphia today, the band will play "Master of Puppets" live for the 1,765th time, and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" for the 1,615th time. For "Whiplash," it would be the 988th time.

Philadelphia is followed by Landover, Maryland. And there, too, they ride the storm again. They never stop, they never give up. That's just Metallica.

Current album: Metallica – “72 Seasons” (Blackened Recordings)

Anniversary box: Metallica – “Load – Deluxe Box” (Blackened Recordings) – released on June 13

Tour dates Germany : May 22/24, 2026 – Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt; May 30, 2026 – Olympiastadion, Berlin