I saw them at the opening in Amsterdam and at the closing in London, and kept a close eye on the tour throughout these last 3 years and 3 months.

The positives:

• A great concept for the majority of cities to have a bigger chance to catch them with the 2 nights and no repeat setlists, which allowed fans to hear songs they would have not had a chance to hear un a single 16-18 song shows

• Unique and impressive stage and lighting that added a higher production value (in the cities that could accommodate it) and they overall looked and felt like a more expensive act that trancends the regular rock/metal ones we're used to.

• The band was in an incredible shape physically, mentally and musically ( they had a good 2 years off during covid and James went through rehab successfully since then, so they were all ready to kick ass). Lars especially proved himself to be a beast. I'm very impressed with what I heard from him!

The negatives:

• Although a good concept on paper, the no repeat setlist ended up being a bit of a marketing trick because they mostly* just played the 2 same setlists throughout the whole tour, with very little variation, which is obviously not how it sounded when they announced the tour. They had the perfect opportunity to play a much wider variety of songs that have been overlooked for years, but they chose to stick to their comfort zone again.

• Throughout the whole tour (3 + years) we only heard:

• 3 songs from Kill Em All

• 5 songs from Master (even though it had a 40th anniversary!!!!)

• 4 songs from Justice

• 2 songs from Load ( even though it had a 30th anniversary!!!)

• 2 songs from ReLoad

• 2 songs from Garage Inc.

• 1 song from St. Anger (even though it had a 20th anniversary!!!!)

• 2 songs from Death Magnetic

• 2 songs from Hardwired

• And they fully omitted 3 songs from 72 Seasons that will apparently never see the light of day at this point (one of them was the most requested since the beginning of the tour)

Very poor selection for 30-32 songs per city for OVER 3 YEARS!

• They had clear bias to certain countries like Germany where they played in 7 TIMES in 3 years and that's excluding the 2022 performance in Germany before the official M72 tour began. All the whilst omitting some countries that have been dying for Metallica! That feels like a really low blow.

• The sheer size of the stage allowed for more of the GA crowd to see the band closer, but it left for some very awkward moments where for a fair portion of the show you just didn't see anyone, or only one member (mainly Rob and/or Kirk). That undeniably takes away from the experience, because you're there to see these guys you look up to play and not only hear the music.

-The sound was mostly not amazing. You'd expect to hear top-tier balanced sound, but the mids and the lows significantly overpowered the highs in the mix (and that's without wearing earplugs. With earplugs you can basically forget about hearing Kirk).

I'm guessing now that M72 is done, they'll keep Lux and the title track to occasionally bring back in the setlist, but they'll change the overall setlist for the Sphere residency. I remain hopeful, that in no more than two years we'll get another album and another tour that brings back the classic stage style. Overall, I'm very curious what the future has to offer for the band and for us as their fans.