Metallica are taking their live experiment to the most technologically ambitious stage on the planet.
After months of speculation, the band has officially announced Life Burns Faster, an eight-show residency at Sphere in Las Vegas beginning October 1, 2026. The run will continue the No Repeat Weekend format introduced during their M72 World Tour, with completely different setlists across paired Thursday and Saturday performances.
The dates are set for October 1 and 3, 15 and 17, 22 and 24, and 29 and 31.
Two-night No Repeat Weekend tickets and single-night tickets go on sale March 6 at 10 a.m. PT. Ticket registration is open now at https://metallica.lnk.to/MetallicaSphere.
Metallica’s M72 World Tour, which launched in spring 2023, has already played to more than four million fans across Europe, North America, the Pacific Rim, and the Middle East. Built around a 360-degree stage with the “Snake Pit” at its center, the tour reimagined the band’s stadium show blueprint. The Sphere residency appears poised to push that reinvention even further.
Sphere’s immersive capabilities include a wraparound high-resolution LED display that extends up and over the audience, proprietary Immersive Sound technology designed to deliver consistent audio clarity throughout the venue, and multi-sensory 4D elements. The venue first opened in 2023 and quickly established itself as a new frontier for large-scale residencies.
In a statement, drummer Lars Ulrich said the idea crystallized almost instantly after seeing U2 open the venue in 2023. “About 12 seconds into the opening night of Sphere with U2 back in ’23, I thought, ‘We have to do this. It’s completely uncharted territory.’ This residency gives us another chance to reinvent how we interact with our fans in a live setting.”
The No Repeat Weekend structure means that fans attending both nights of a pair will not hear the same song twice. The format debuted with the M72 Tour and quickly became one of its defining features, encouraging deep catalog exploration rather than greatest hits redundancy.
At Sphere, that concept will be layered onto an environment purpose-built for sensory immersion. Expect staples from across Metallica’s catalog, from Kill ’Em All through 72 Seasons, but framed through a visual and sonic system unlike any previous Metallica production.
The residency is produced by Live Nation and presented by inKind.
Formed in 1981 by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Metallica have sold nearly 125 million albums worldwide and generated more than 25 billion streams. Their most recent album, 72 Seasons, released in April 2023 via their own Blackened Recordings label, earned a Grammy Award and further cemented the band’s late-career creative resurgence.
Over the past several years, Metallica have leaned into scale without sacrificing volatility. Eight nights. No repeats. Total sensory overload.
