Metallica have shared official performance videos of "...And Justice for All" and "The Call of Ktulu" from their Life Burns Faster residency at Sphere. Both were filmed on October 1, the opening night in Las Vegas. They give fans a professionally recorded counterpart to the audience clips that circulated after the show.
Source: Kreepin Deth, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield in London, October 2017; archive photo, cropped and resized, not the Sphere performance. Image derivatives use the same licence.
NME highlighted the releases on Saturday, and both clips are linked from the band's official website. This is footage from the night covered in our opening-show report, not a newly announced concert or a recording of this weekend's set.
A twelve-year return beside a touring regular
The two selections tell different stories. "...And Justice for All", the title track of the band's 1988 album, returned after a long absence. In Metallica's own performance archive, the entry immediately before October 1 is Montreal's Heavy MTL on August 9, 2014. The Sphere recording therefore documents a return after more than twelve years, rather than simply another performance of a regularly played song.
"The Call of Ktulu" has no vocal part. The official song catalogue lists James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton and Dave Mustaine as its writers, and records performances in Frankfurt, Budapest, Dublin and London earlier this year. Its place beside "Justice" should not be read as another twelve-year comeback. One clip preserves a revival; the other adds a new filmed version of an instrumental already in the touring repertoire.
Keep the opening night separate from the full residency
Our Life Burns Faster schedule extends into March 2027. The October 1 labels on these videos are useful: they identify one show within that run. They do not establish what will be played on another night, or amount to the release of every performance from the residency.
