"I was there when U2 played the opening night and was awestruck, inspired, energized." Lars Ulrich is excited at the idea of Metallica "conquering" the "intimidating" Las Vegas Sphere

Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield of Metallica at London Stadium on July 3, 2026 — (Image credit: Jim Dyson/Getty Images))

Metallica will launch their extended Life Burns Faster residency at the Sphere Las Vegas on October 1, and drummer Lars Ulrich is already excited about the challenge of staging the ultimate Metallica live experience at the "intimidating" high-tech Nevada venue.

With the San Francisco quartet's massive M72 World Tour, now officially certified as the 10th highest-grossing tour of all time, finally complete, the band are turning their attention to their upcoming stay at Sphere, where they have shows lined up in October and November, plus January, February and March 2027.

In playing at Sphere, Metallica will follow in the footsteps of U2, Eagles, Phish, Dead and Company and more, and Ulrich is aware that past residencies at the venue have raised the bar for live concert experiences.

"I was there opening night [of the U2 residency]," the drummer tells U2 guitarist The Edge on his Close To The Edge show on SiriusXM, "and was so just fucking awestruck, inspired, energized, all of it. And it was just, like, Holy shit, this is somehow another frontier.

"Obviously, you guys were the first ones in," Ulrich continues, "and it was just so incredible to see that night. And so in that spirit, three years later, when we start here in a few months, we're so excited and definitely have heard from a few folks about the filming and all of it.

"It's gonna be challenging... it's overwhelming and fucking intimidating. But hopefully when we step out on stage that first night, we'll have it somewhat together. And as you know, that's a place maybe we don't end up in often enough, because we have a tendency to put ourselves in environments that we completely control and know. And so I think it's really good to be able to throw yourself for a loop like that."

Metallica Life Burns Faster at Sphere Las Vegas

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.