By The Riff Report Blog – Still Deaf From Night Two, Send Help (and earplugs)

🔥 The M72 Tour: Two Nights, No Repeats, Pure Carnage 🔥

If there’s one band that could take over the globe and double-down on the destruction, it’s METALLICA – the Lords of Loud, the Sultans of Shred, the four horsemen of our musical apocalypse. With the M72 World Tour, they’ve done what no other band on earth has dared to try:

🎸 Two nights. Two completely different sets. No repeats.
💀 One massive circular stage in the middle of the stadium.
🤯 A sonic sledgehammer of classic bangers and deep cuts.

C’mon butt – this wasn’t just a tour. This was a pilgrimage. A metal mecca. And if you weren’t there, we’re sorry to say… you missed something tidy.

🎟️ THE FORMAT – METAL IN 4D

The M72 tour ditched the usual front-facing stage and plonked a big ol’ donut of doom right in the middle of the stadium. Imagine a massive UFO landed and instead of aliens, it’s James, Lars, Kirk and Rob firing riffs in every direction.

Fans surrounded the stage 360°, making every seat a good one (unless you were behind that one 7ft tall bloke with a battle vest full of spikes). But it wasn’t just spectacle – the sound setup was thunderous, with towers of speakers placed around the arena for maximum riff saturation.

Each city got two nights – lovingly dubbed “No Repeat Weekends.” That means if you saw both shows, you got nearly 40 different songs across the two nights. You want the hits? They’re in there. You want obscure bangers? They pulled ‘em out, polished them off, and let them loose.

⚔️ SETLISTS FROM THE DEPTHS OF METAL HEAVEN

Here’s a taste of the chaos (your actual setlists may vary depending on which mosh pit you got flattened in):

🎤 NIGHT ONE HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Creeping Death (cue 70,000 voices screaming “DIE! DIE! DIE!” 😈)
  • Harvester of Sorrow
  • Lux Æterna (Yes, it slaps live. Like, really slaps.)
  • Fade to Black (tears and goosebumps, mate)
  • Seek & Destroy – now with extra pyro

🥁 NIGHT TWO DESTRUCTION:

  • Whiplash (you will pull something headbanging to this)
  • Welcome Home (Sanitarium) – unhinged and glorious
  • Orion (instrumental perfection)
  • Battery (more chaotic than Glasto loos on Sunday morning)
  • Master of Puppets – THE closer. THE anthem. THE religion.

Also, shout out to “If Darkness Had a Son” from 72 Seasons – live, it thunders like a freight train covered in chainsaws. It’s the sort of song that’d scare off ghosts and win you bar fights.

🪦 DEEP CUTS FOR THE DIEHARDS

Metallica didn’t just serve up the obvious hits. Oh no. They went deeeeep. We’re talking:

  • “The Call of Ktulu” (!)
  • “Dirty Window” (from St. Anger – brave, boys. Brave.)
  • “No Leaf Clover” (S&M fans cried tears of joy and whisky)

It felt like a love letter to every era, from the thrashy chaos of the early years to the polished power of their modern catalogue. Even if you’re a Ride the Lightning purist or a Load/Reload defender (we see you, denim-shirt warrior), you got something to scream along to.

⚡ THE STAGE PRESENCE – STILL GODLIKE

  • James Hetfield: Still the Papa Het we all need. Gruff. Commanding. Weirdly wholesome when he tells us to look after each other in the pit.
  • Lars Ulrich: A machine gun in human form. That snare still sounds like a trash can sometimes, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
  • Kirk Hammett: Wah pedal is now basically another limb. He shredded like his life depended on it.
  • Rob Trujillo: Crabs his way around the stage, basslines thick as lava. Dropped a cheeky cover of a local artist at some stops too – lush touch, that.

🎆 THE EXPERIENCE – RUMBLE, ROAR, RIFF

From the moment the first riff ripped through the air to the final “Maaasteeer!” echoing into the night, the M72 experience was all-consuming. The pyro, the lights, the bass you could feel in your bones… it was less a concert and more a full-body possession.

People came from all over the world, draped in leather, denim, band patches and battle gear. Entire families of metalheads. Grandads headbanging with their grandkids. Mates reunited. Couples getting engaged mid-“Nothing Else Matters” (yes, we cried – don’t judge us).

And the merch? A money pit of metal madness. Black everything. Skull-laden everything. £40 for a beanie? Shut up and take our money.

💿 72 SEASONS – THE NEW STUFF SLAPS LIVE

We gotta talk about the new album. 72 Seasons landed with a bang, and while the online metal purists debated its place in the pantheon, live… it ripped.
“Too Far Gone?”? A headbanger’s dream.
“Sleepwalk My Life Away”? Heaviest groove since Sad But True.
“Lux Æterna”? That chorus is like Red Bull in song form.

Seeing these songs slot in alongside the giants made it clear: Metallica are still evolving, still relevant, and still not afraid to punch your ears with fresh material.

🏁 FINAL VERDICT: A TOUR FOR THE AGES

If you saw the M72 tour, you lived through history. If you didn’t? Mate, you’d better hope for a live DVD or time machine.

The M72 World Tour isn’t just Metallica proving they’ve still got it – it’s them saying:
“We NEVER lost it.”
They’ve bent genres, broken records, outlived their doubters, and still bring arenas to their knees.

💀 RATING: 72/72 skulls. Would get crushed in the snake pit again.

Tidy. Loud. Eternal.
That’s Metallica.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to rest our necks, ice our knees, and cry over how much we spent at the merch stand.

What’s your favourite M72 moment? Drop it in the comments, ya legends! 🤘👇