Metallica debuted their longest recorded song at a gig in Munich on Sunday night.
Clocking in at 11 minutes, 10 seconds, Inamorata was one of the highlights of their 2023 album 72 Seasons. James Hetfield introduced it at the Olympiastadion by describing it as “one of my favourites.”
He also said, “This next song we have never, ever played live before. And, you know, in our band, we don’t recognize the word ‘mistake’ — cause there are no mistakes. There’s just unique moments that happen. That’s what we need to tell ourselves.”
The studio version of Inamorata concludes with studio chatter, with the band talking about how it ends with the ‘best’ button.
Talking to Rolling Stone last year, Lars Ulrich explained this curious reference by saying: “Well, ‘button’ is a term for the end of a song. So the last few hits or the outro is the button. If you talk to 10 artists, you’ll probably hear 10 different sets of lingo and quirky explanations for what they call stuff when they work together. What we call the very end of a song is the button.”
Sunday’s gig was the second Munich date for the band who are playing two nights at every city on the M72 world tour, with different set lists and support acts each night. Friday saw them supported by Architects and Mammoth WVH, whilst on Sunday fans could see Five Finger Death Punch and Ice Nine Kills.
Bassist Robert Trujillo has previously talked about how the band have thought carefully about pacing their sets on this tour. “Initially, we thought it would be really clever and exciting to open the show with an instrumental, like The Call Of Ktulu or Orion,” he told Classic Rock in an interview last year.
"We found that an instrumental is very powerful for the set but it sits much better in the middle of a set, it’s a chance for the fan to absorb and embrace the song.
"Rather than just coming out throwing a curveball at them, we would rather come out with a Whiplash or a Creeping Death, something that kind of smacks you in the face.”
Friday’s concert was memorable for the thunderstorm that occurred while the band were playing. As the band tore through Master Of Puppets, fans could see lightning flashes in the sky above, a totally metal backdrop which would have surely pleased the band.
After Germany, the M72 tour moves onto Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Spain, and then onto North America in August. No UK dates have been announced as yet.
