Concert Review - Metallica - Auckland - 19th November 2025
Presented by Live Nation
Metallica Live in Auckland Photo Megan Moss
Review By: James Brown
Artist/Band: Metallica with special guests Suicidal Tendencies and Evanescence
Venue/City: Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand
Date of Event: Wednesday 19th November 2025
Entering ‘New Zealand’s national stadium’ it was immediately apparent that no expense had been spared on this tour. A huge but elegantly minimalist stage was artfully set up with nothing to visually distract from the musicians. A large D-shaped runway jutting out from the centre formed a Snake Pit for the lucky VIPs who would get an unrivalled view of the performers in the round. Five mammoth video screens formed an imposing backdrop. Rear screens are nothing new, but they have reached a zenith of technical wizardry. The scale and definition on display were truly impressive, with recorded material interspersed artfully with live footage of the band and crowd. Gargantuan light pylons towered in the centre of the field, to help bathe Eden Park in saturated colour.
Openers Suicidal Tendencies made full use of the enormous stage, getting a cardio workout in their half-hour set. Hardcore icon Mike Muir is definitely still cyco. pacing the runway and delivering positive affirmations like a self-help guru - ‘When you fall, get your ass back up.’ Despite it still being day, when most people would naturally only just be finishing work, Mike had no trouble commanding the crowd – not yet more than half filling the stadium – to get their fucking fists in the air. During the last two songs, Cyco Vision and Pledge Your Allegiance, a small but enthusiastic circle pit formed. Hardcore crowds of the ‘90s may perhaps have been unimpressed, but it showed the spirit of Lollapalooza is not dead.
For the last show on the tour, the whole band brought boundless energy, showing no signs that they were fatigued after rocking the Powerstation the night before. (Read Sarah Kidd’s review here) The standout was Ben Weinberg, throwing himself and his guitar all over the huge stage and jumping off speaker stacks. Tye Trujillo looks like a cherubic version of his father. His frenetic solo in Give Me Your Money showed that he has inherited his nimble fingers as well.
Evanescence’s set progressed the early evening from full daylight – albeit under a troublingly grey Auckland sky – to gentle gloaming. Apt, because Evanescence openly and enthusiastically encourage welcoming the darkness. My sole critique of Evanescence would be that they lack tonal range. When you begin with high melodrama, you don’t leave yourself much room to build. Their default mood evokes a particularly intense battle sequence in a computer game of the RPG variety, specifically the climactic moment where it is revealed that the final boss – invariably some variety of fallen angel – has a second, much larger health bar. However, for their fans, the heightened emotion is a feature, not a bug.
Amy Lee’s powerful mezzo-soprano voice was at its mellifluous best throughout. At times she stood alone, the rest of the band taking such a discreet backseat that she was essentially singing a capella. And she never came close to missing a note.
Although Amy showed off her classical training by playing some brief keyboard passages, it began to seem as though the grand piano placed enticingly on the D-shaped runway was not going to get enough use to justify its presence. Amy took to the piano for one song, Lithium, where she looked genuinely iconic in close-up on the megascreens, her piercing blue eyes offset by hot-pink eyeshadow. Otherwise, though, the piano sat neglected until the two closing numbers. My Immortal had a significant portion of the crowd singing along. And finally Bring Me to Life showed that there can be no shame in having one defining signature tune if it happens to be epic enough to unite the crowd – by now almost filling the stadium – in rapturous applause.
If the job of a good support act is to start and finish on time and bring the crowd to just the right peak of energy and anticipation, Evanescence’s delivery was pitch-perfect. As the sun set behind the stage, with a pronounced roar, a recording of AC/DC’s It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll) announced that the main event was imminent, accompanying on the screens a photo montage of Metallica’s history.
And so, on to the main act. One of the cardinal sins of reviewing is to allow things to get too personal. However, my complicated history with Metallica is all too typical of fans around my age, so I feel l may speak honestly for many of us. So let it be written, so let it be done. I confess to a certain degree of impostor syndrome. My metal bona fides are tarnished, to say the least. I cut off my long hair and introduced colours other than black to my wardrobe years ago – decades ago, in fact.
Too much water has gone under the bridge for this to be like just any other rock show. Like suddenly confronting an old flame, the past – both the triumphs and the disappointments – form a poignant backdrop to the dawning realisation that this is actually happening. The empussificating influence of Bob Rock, the mistreatment of Jason Newsted, the Napster Wars, Dave Mustaine’s salty tears, the snare drum sound on St Anger. All these controversies, which once might have seemed important, fade into insignificance with the passage of time. Yet the history is there, and we must reckon with all of it – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Right on cue, the unmistakable strains of Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy of Gold rang out, as on screen Clint Eastwood confronted Eli Wallach in a dilapidated cemetery. This soaring masterpiece of cinema scoring used to mean that Clint Eastwood was sick of Lee Van Cleef’s shit. But since 1983 it has conveyed only one meaning: ‘Hold on to your asses, because Metallica are about to take the stage!’
Creeping Death opened the set with aplomb. The screens showed abstract visuals suggesting the mountains of Mars, or perhaps the Black Smoke from HG Wells’ War of the Worlds.
For Whom the Bell Tolls brought the crowd to their feet – a little too literally, for those of us who prefer to remain seated, and would rather not force this choice on the patrons to our rear. Everyone is welcome to stand if they choose, but that’s what the GA section is for.
Metallica have long made impressively strategic use of pyrotechnics. The ‘fire’ in the chorus of Blackened used to be punctuated with carefully synchronised flamebursts. These days, in Fuel, they have a more literal justification – gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme huge gouts of flame easily 20 metres in height whose heat is palpable from half a stadium away.
Wherever I May Roam calmed the energy back to a sustainable lull, with the visual dominated by a corruscating blue coral motif. At the mid-point in the proceedings, each stop on the tour has included an interlude where Kirk and Rob ‘doodle’, treating the crowd to some local music. As Rob explained, ‘Sometimes we just learned these songs today.’ And it showed. First was Split Enz’ I Got You, followed by what was unquestionably not the most assured performance of Six60’s Don’t Forget Your Roots that Eden Park has witnessed.
Moth into Flame, off 2016’s Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, was inspired by the death of Amy Winehouse, and deals with the destructive power of fame and addiction. However there was nothing maudlin about the presentation. A panoply of neon signs suggested Las Vegas excess. Kirk’s guitar was a rather apt sparkly purple ouija board. And of course, the song’s title was enough excuse for a return of the huge flame spurts.
Next, Hetfield promised something heavy, and they delivered. Sad But True was a dark, sludgy dirge, complemented by visuals of pounding hammers, blind Justice, and snatches of lyrics in distorted Russian constructivist type. It ended with Hetfield on his knees, offering a prayer to the god of feedback.
After a short pause, abruptly Kirk stood alone at the front of the runway, bathed in light, playing the intro to Nothing Else Matters. The crowd-pleasing power ballad saw a laterally angled light show turn the smoke above the stadium into a swirling roof of blue and green. A sea of phone lights replaced what, in years gone by, would have been cigarette lighters. Fashion changes with the tides. On that note, I saw surprisingly little long hair on display. A noted exception was spotting in the crowd the Christ-like form of Jon Toogood, of past-Metallica-support-act Shihad.
Seek & Destroy has long been Metallica’s go-to vehicle for audience call and response, and the Eden Park crowd took it up with gusto. The screens showed a montage of tickets from past Auckland shows, evoking a twinge of nostalgia for those of us for whom this is not our first rodeo. From backstage emerged dozens of enormous yellow-and-black beach balls. They bounced above the heads of the crowd like a demented carnival game, while on stage Rob whirled like a mad dervish. The energy built to such a crescendo that James jokingly teased ‘Thank you and goodnight!’ But of course, it was far from over.
Lux Æterna was the sole track off the latest album, 72 Seasons. It saw Eden Park awash in the signature bright yellow of the M72 tour’s branding. With the necessary ‘new stuff’ requirement satisfied, they segued unceremoniously into Master of Puppets, and the threatening rain finally arrived.
The penultimate number was the One that many of us were waiting for. Fireworks. Johnny Got His Gun, indeed. Now the light rain helped delineate the multicoloured laser show so effectively that it might have been summoned by the metal gods.
They closed with Enter Sandman, because of course they did. As if to protest that – commercial success not necessarily correlating with quality – the highlight of the evening had already concluded, a few traditionalists took the cue to beat the rush to the exits. A prolonged and intense firework display assured the crowd – and countless thousand impatient neighbours – in no uncertain terms that yes, the show was definitely over.
For those of us who cared to look, some subtle signs were there that, as For Whom the Bell Tolls tells us, time does indeed march on. While musically they were undiminished, Metallica can’t keep doing this forever. Each pre-recorded video segment between songs was not merely a handy way of heightening the drama; it was also a calculated pause to allow some band members a quick breather. It had been 15 years since Metallica last played in Aotearoa. Let us hope that it will not be another 15 years before they return. But if it is, by then they will assuredly not be the same.
‘New boy’ Robert Trujillo has now been with the band for longer than they existed without him. Even perennial Peter Pan Kirk Hammett is beginning to look more than a little rough around the edges. Lars can still pound away as well as ever, but I’m sorry, the backwards cap made him look like a little boy with a tragic wasting disease. Hetfield, though, suits being in his 60s. A character is emerging that was always somewhere within him – part sinister Southern Baptist preacher like Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter, but tinged with the knowing benevolence of a lightly intoxicated mall Santa.
The lasting impression I took from the night was the sheer magnitude of the event. Metallica are simply bigger than the music now. They have branded board games and a charitable foundation, All Within My Hands. Is that metal? Perhaps some of the more cynical metalheads, who deplore insincerity, may say they got too successful, or committed the sin of believing their own hype. But surely you would have to be some kind of monster (see what I did there?) to begrudge them a desire to do some good with their success and profile. If you get big enough, the rules don't apply anymore. Or rather, perhaps, the rules become whatever you say they are. Metallica are metal. They didn’t invent the genre, nor did they perfect it, but they have come to embody it in a way that very few others can claim to.
Eden Park at full concert capacity is truly a sight to behold, a veritable sea of humanity. With over 55,000 fans in attendance, the stadium temporarily qualified as one of Aotearoa’s the top 15 cities. The colossal logistical undertaking of simply getting that many people safely in and out of the venue, let alone transport, food and security, must not be underestimated. The government would have us believe they can activate a magical new revenue stream by changing zoning rules to allow 20 more Eden Park concerts every year. Well, newsflash – to think there are 20 Metallicas waiting in the wings is delusional. The promoters know it. The fans know it. Nights like this simply cannot be conjured out of thin air.
Each fan has their own unique Metallica journey, and this was for all of us. It doesn’t matter whether you queued in the rain to spend more than you could afford at the pop-up merch shop, if you bought a Master of Puppets T-shirt on sale at Jayjays last week, or if your cherished And Justice For All T-shirt fell to pieces more years ago than you can remember. It was for the diehard metalhead who never lost the faith. It was for the 12-year-old who came with her dad and who had only the vaguest concept of the right way to throw up devil horns. It was even for the punk in an Exploited jacket who I like to hope was the same bloke who I saw hold an upraised middle finger to Metallica for the entirety of their ‘93 Supertop performance, in a gesture of futile musical defiance. If he enjoyed himself, I suppose he got just as much value from the price of his ticket as any of us.
As Hetfield said, we are all part of the Metallica family now. It’s safe to pinch yourself - you didn’t dream it. You witnessed and were part of something special, something historic. And however chequered that history might be for some of us, (you knew I was going to say it before I did) nothing else matters.
Suicidal Tendencies setlist
You Can't Bring Me Down
Join the Army
Send Me Your Money
Subliminal
Adrenaline Addict (with Nisha STar)
Cyco Vision
Pledge Your Allegiance
Evanescence setlist
Afterlife
Made of Stone
Going Under
Take Cover
The Game Is Over
Lithium
Wasted on You
Better Without You
Call Me When You're Sober
Imaginary
Use My Voice
End of the Dream
My Immortal
Bring Me to Life
Metallica setlist
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fuel
Harvester of Sorrow
The Unforgiven
Wherever I May Roam
Kirk and Rob Doodle – I Got You (Split Enz), Don’t Forget Your Roots (Six60)
The Day That Never Comes
Moth into Flame
Sad But True
Nothing Else Matters
Seek & Destroy
Lux Æterna
Master of Puppets
One
Enter Sandman
Metallica - M72 World Tour