The last time I was at a Metallica concert was when they performed at Changi Exhibition Centre in 2013. Anvil was the opening act and I was amused by Steve "Lips" Kudlow playing the guitar with a vibrator, the act displayed writ large on the screens by the stage. I remembered milling about with other patrons as we wait for Metallica to come on, then as though the world held its breath, the cemetery scene from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly played on the screens. Ennio Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold" climbs to a climax as Eli Wallach's Tuco run among the graves of Sad Hill Cemetery before the scene cuts to black and then the opening riff of "Master of Puppets" kick in. Cue the euphoric roar of metalheads.
And while there's nothing like the feel of being at a Metallica concert, the next best thing is experiencing it via the Apple Vision Pro. This is the follow-up immersive concert experience after The Weeknd's and if you've seen snippets of Mr Tesfaye's concert, you know that you're in for a treat with Metallica.
Shot with 14 cameras at Metallica’s M72 World Tour finale in Mexico City in a ultra-high-resolution 180-degree video accompanied by spatial audio, you're not viewing the performance from the front row. You're placed inside the show. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to standing in the Snake Pit, short of actually being there, beer in one hand, devil horns in the other.
"Game changing is putting it lightly,” Lars Ulrich says of the experience. And for once, he’s underselling it. Nothing was spared in producing this—stabilised rigs; suspended cable shots; remote-controlled dolly systems. It'll feel like you were standing shoulder to shoulder with them.
Sadly, it's not the full concert. You'll experience a three-song set—"Whiplash," "One," and "Enter Sandman". For a taster, you can head to an Apple Store today for a hands-on demo of the Apple Vision Pro and get an extended preview of the concert. And—surprise, surprise—you get to listen to those three songs in their M72 World Tour: Mexico City on Apple Music.
