Every Metallica Tour, Ranked — From 1983 to Now

With inner-band strife growing at the time, this oddball tour would be Newsted’s last with Metallica (Bob Rock filled in on bass for some dates, while the band was holding auditions for Newsted’s replacement). The seven-week trek was marked by Hetfield’s absence for three concerts, after suffering a back injury while jet skiing; Newsted handled most of the lead vocals during those shows, while members of opening acts Korn, System of a Down and Kid Rock’s Twisted Brown Trucker filled in on additional vocals and rhythm guitar.

Metallica caused all sorts of consternation by headlining the sixth edition of the Lollapalooza tour, while its fans were wringing their hands over the group’s newly cropped coifs and the more diversified sound of its then-new Load album. Metallica used the expanded dynamics to bring more dimension to its shows, however — especially as the Pour Touring Me jaunt made its way through North America and Europe.

Supporting its debut album, Kill ‘Em All, Metallica went on three major road trips: Kill’Em All for One, July 1983-January 1984 in North America; the quick Seven Dates of Hell during February of 1984 supporting Venom in Europe; and the more extensive Bang That Head That Doesn’t Bang, also in Europe during November and December 1984. These were wild times, with wild — and not always on-point — performances, but by the latter tour Metallica had planted its flag as a potent headliner in the thrash world.

This tour was comprised of a handful of best-of setlist dates in Europe and North America, with a tour-ending stop in Rio de Janeiro, all supporting a new one-off single: “Lords of Summer,” which was released digitally in March and physically for Record Store Black Friday in November. It also appeared on deluxe editions of 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct album.

The Reload album played a bit better with fans who had acclimated to Metallica’s more expansive musical vision after Load. Hitting arena and amphitheater stages, the North American leg was preceded by April 1999 concerts with the San Francisco Symphony at the Berkeley Community Theatre, which were recorded for 1999’s S&M album. Arena shows also included a 360-degree stage and a theatrical “accident” towards the show’s end, which some fans did not realize was fake.

These relatively short treks taken between albums were notable for premiering untitled new songs — portions of which made it onto 2008’s Death Magnetic — while Metallica played its 1986 thrash masterpiece Master of Puppets in its entirety during the 2006 outing. Some Death Magnetic songs were fully formed for the 2008 jaunt, during which Metallica headlined an OZZfest show on Aug. 9 in Frisco, Texas.

A mixed bag of dates during the year included the first two Big Four festivals with fellow thrash legends Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, as well as Metallica’s first show in India, European concerts with Lou Reed to promote the Lulu album, and four particularly hot December concerts at the Fillmore San Francisco to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary.

Metallica returned from the Covid-19 pandemic — during which it played some virtual concerts — slowly, with just over three dozen shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album) in North America, South America and Europe. On some dates the group performed the album in its entirety — in reverse order, so the main set concluded with “Enter Sandman.”

A great deal happened for Metallica during the nearly three-year interim between Summer Sanitariums, including Newsted’s departure, Hetfield leaving the band briefly, and group therapy — all documented in the film 2004 film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. New bassist Robert Trujillo brought fresh energy, though the St. Anger album, like Load and Reload, proved polarizing. Fans around the world were still happy to come out and bang their heads, however, and the last North American leg featured a round, 360-degree stage set low to put Metallica hard in fans’ faces each night.

Metallica spent seven months on the road supporting its second album, co-headlining some dates with W.A.S.P. before its own North American headlining tour, and making appearances at the hometown Day on the Green in Oakland, Calif. and its first Monsters of Rock date in Donnington Park, England. The Bay Area punk thrashers were tightening things up considerably, and even premiered the title track for its next album, Master of Puppets, on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco (also the first time it shared a stage with Mustaine’s Megadeth).

Having conquered arenas and stadiums on the heels of the Metallica album, the group summered in North American amphitheaters during 1994 — highlighted by its Aug. 13 performance at the Woodstock ’94 festival. The shows included a breakneck medley of five songs from Metallica’s first two albums, Kill ’em All and Ride the Lightning, and then-former Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford joined for a performance of Priest’s “Rapid Fire” in Miami.

A handful of dates from June through September included the second and final Orion festival in Detroit, at which Metallica played the entirety of 1983 debut set Kill ‘Em All — celebrating its 30th anniversary — under the name Dehaan (Dane DeHaan starred in the Metallica: Through the Never film). The band finished the year on Dec. 8 with the Freeze ‘Em All concert at Carlini Base in Antarctica, making Metallica the first band to perform on all seven continents.

The first of Metallica’s two Orion Music + More festivals, held June 23-24 in Atlantic City, N.J, was sandwiched between a spring European tour celebrating the Metallica album’s 20th anniversary and North American Full Arsenal dates during the summer, with elaborately staged concerts in Vancouver and Edmonton, filmed for the 2013 Metallica: Through the Never film.

Still reeling from Burton’s death, Metallica took time off from recording … And Justice For All to join Bon Jovi, Dio, Anthrax, W.A.S.P. and Cinderella for three Monsters of Rock packaged dates in Europe, preceded by a date blowing the walls out at London’s 100 Club. The following summer Metallica was part of Van Halen’s Monsters of Rock ’88 summer run in the U.S., going on in the middle of the shows, winning over stadiums full of mainstream rock fans and priming the anticipation for its fourth album.

Having stoked anticipation during the Monsters of Rock ’88 summer trek in the U.S., Metallica scored its first top 10 album on the Billboard 200 with … And Justice For All when it was released during late August. It also headlined arenas for the first time; a 3-D recreation of the cover’s Lady Justice image hovered over the band as it played two legs of dates across North America, Europe, South America and the Pacific Rim.

Metallica made it around the globe to support its 2008 album Death Magnetic, with arena shows featuring a rectangular stage set in the middle for 360-degree viewing, as well as casket-shaped light pods modeled after the album cover. Despite some complaints about the album’s mix, it was more popular out of the box than St. Anger — debuting at No. 1 and winning three Grammy Awards — which put some palpable jet fuel behind the tour.

Between albums, Metallica played throughout South America and Europe, with just one North American date on Aug. 9 at the Heavy Montreal festival. (There were, however, later appearances at BlizzCon 2014 in Anaheim, Calif., and The Concert for Valor 2014 in Washington, D.C.). As the tour title indicates, this time out the group asked fans to vote for the setlist in advance — and during the concert, via SMS, for an encore — all of which allowed for a few nightly variations.

The best part of the campaign for Metallica’s Garage Inc. album was the five theater shows it played during November 1998 — spotlighting the album’s covers, and featuring Metallica tribute bands opening to cover the bases the band might not during its own unique sets. Its run of dates in 1999, meanwhile, included symphonic shows in Germany and New York, while Metallica closed the century with a 10-date tour that included a return to the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit for New Year’s Eve.

This is when Metallica’s live legend really accelerated, boosting its Master of Puppets album first by supporting Ozzy Osbourne in arenas, and then headlining later in the year in Europe, with Anthrax opening. The band’s collective enthusiasm for drinking led to the nickname Alcoholica, while Hetfield broke his wrist in a skateboarding fall during the tour (guitar tech John Marshall subbed for some dates). The tour took a tragic turn on September 27, when Burton was killed when the tour bus slid on black ice and crashed in Dorarp, Sweden. A shell-shocked Metallica soldiered on, bringing in Jason Newsted of Flotsam & Jetsam, and returned to the road during November in Japan — before swings through North America and, at the turn of 1987, back in Europe.

Metallica’s first full-scale tour in six years took the group around the world in support of its 10th studio album, Hardwired … to Self-Destruct. Open staging made room for a larger-than-ever Snakepit for fans, while Hammett and Trujillo took a moment at each show for what was dubbed an instrumental “noodle,” incorporating licks from songs by artists from the area they were playing in. The new songs fit particularly well, and the tour was planned to roll into 2020, but was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Metallica’s latest trek is also one of its best — and most imaginative. Coming in the wake of its 11th studio album, 72 Seasons, the band curated a No Repeat Weekend concept, playing two entirely different shows, two dates apart, in each venue, with a massive in-the-round, 360-degree stage around which Metallica carefully deployed itself. Rarities have filtered throughout the shows, and the support acts — including a reactivated Pantera — have made attending both shows truly special. “I kind of look at it as just one big, long setlist, but spread out over two shows and a one-day intermission in-between,” says Hammett.

After sporadic appearances, primarily in Europe and including another Monsters of Rock tour in 1991, Metallica returned to touring on Oct. 12, 1991, fueled by the success of its chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning fifth album Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album). This is where the group introduced its Snakepit, putting fans inside an area of the stage with the band members moving around them, as well as multiple drum kits for Ulrich. Metallica spent more than 20 months on the road — captured in the documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica — including a summer 1992 stadium tour with Guns N’ Roses. This was Metallica’s arrival moment, staking its claim in the World’s Biggest Band sweepstakes, and as one of the best live acts on the planet.