Metallica have sold a lot of records during their career, and now they've broken an attendance one.
The thrash metal icons M72 world tour visited the Los Angeles NFL arena SoFi Stadium for a two-night stand over the weekend. The combined attendance figure of 156,000 across the two shows set a new record for a single event at the stadium, with the nightly average of over 78,000 attendees breaking a record set by pop megastar Taylor Swift.
The record was confirmed by SoFi Stadium on social media, with their X account stating "@Metallica now holds the highest single-show attendance record at #SoFiStadium. Thank you for two incredible sold-out nights!"
.@Metallica now holds the highest single-show attendance record at #SoFiStadium. Thank you for two incredible sold-out nights! ⚡️🤘#M72LA pic.twitter.com/bnxV7sLKAJ
— SoFi Stadium (@SoFiStadium) August 28, 2023
It is further evidence that despite being over 40 years into their career, Metallica is as popular as they have ever been, with an audience that spans multiple generations and beyond genre confines into mainstream pop culture.
Watch some fan footage, captured from inside the 'snake pit' below.
One member of Taylor Swift's camp who won't be upset by the record going to Metallica is likely bass player, Amos Heller. Heller recently uploaded a video of him shredding Metallica's Blackened. Heller adds some much-needed, technically proficient bottom end to the And Justice For All... classic, boldly going where Metallica alumni Jason Newstead and current bassist Robert Trujillo have gone before. Heller also lets slip that Metallica, and thrash metal, in general, played a huge part in his development into a career musician, commenting "I don't think I would be a musician if it wasn't for thrash metal, and I don't think I would love thrash if I hadn't listened to it every day of my freshman year riding to school in my brother's car with ...And Justice For All blazing out of the speakers. This album is an oddity...a killer metal album with no bass on it. So I put some bass on it. The modern tone I went for might not be the most era-specific, but it felt like a good fit to me. This song was a real challenge, and I love playing it. Enjoy."
With his current gig involving playing to sold-out stadiums worldwide with literally the biggest music star on the planet, it will be interesting to see if Heller can convince Taylor to let him bust out some thrash on her Eras tour.
Blackened appears on Metallica's 1988 record And Justice For All....the band went in-depth on the record, including their decision to turn the bass down during the final mixing process, in this lengthy interview with David Fricke. The M72 tour is happening in support of Metallica's recent album 72 Seasons. The highly anticipated 72 Seasons release is the Bay Area thrash icons' first full-length offering since 2016's Hardwired... To Self Destruct. Produced by Greg Fidelman, the 12-track, 77-minute album is a concept record based on the impact of the first 18 years of life on the foundation of identity. Frontman James Hetfield explains "72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told 'who we are' by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how they affect our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is a reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry."
Listen to 72 Seasons
