Metallica Surprise Festival Crowd + Play ‘Black Album’ in Full
The celebration of the 30th anniversary of Metallica's self-titled "black" album continued Sunday night as the band surprised fans revisiting the 1991 classic in reverse order during their festival-closing set at Louder Than Life.
Though Metallica has promised special sets for the festival, the plan to revisit the Black album wasn't revealed into a few songs in. James Hetfield and crew rocked their way through "Hardwired," "The Four Horsemen" and "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" before the detour into revisiting the full album.
As the "Black" album is frontloaded with the hits coming early, the band started things off with a video interlude before launching into the album closer "The Struggle Within." Playing the album in reverse then made "Enter Sandman" the final song during the body of their set.
As it's not everyday that Metallica revisits the "Black" album, several of the songs during the show were making their first appearance in quite some time. As noted by Setlist.fm. "The Struggle Within" and "Don't Tread on Me" had not been played live since June 24, 2012. "My Friend of Misery" also returned for the first time since March 1, 2013.
The set also included an encore of "Blackened" and "Creeping Death," with the latter returning to the show closer spot for the first time since July 9, 2011. Check out the full setlist below and see some fan-shot footage from the festival performance as well.
Metallica 2021 Louder Than Life Sept. 26, 2021 Setlist (Including 'Black Album' in full)
1. Hardwired
2. The Four Horsemen
3. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
4. The Struggle Within
5. My Friend of Misery
6. The God That Failed
7. Of Wolf and Man
8. Nothing Else Matters
9. Through the Never
10. Don't Tread on Me
11. Wherever I May Roam
12. The Unforgiven
13. Holier Than Thou
14. Sad But True
15. Enter Sandman
Encore
16. Blackened
17. Creeping Death