{"id":422603,"date":"2026-05-11T17:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422603\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T17:52:10","slug":"metallica-pack-16-song-set-with-classics-at-first-show-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422603\/","title":{"rendered":"Metallica Pack 16-Song Set with Classics at First Show of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Metallica<\/a> played their first show of 2026 on Saturday, May 9th, at Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, delivering a career-spanning 16-song set.<\/p>\n

With Athens not being one of \u201cNo Repeat Weekend\u201d stops on the band\u2019s long-running \u201cM72 World Tour,\u201d Metallica packed the set with classics. Whereas fans would have to attend two concerts in other cities to hear both \u201cMaster of Puppets\u201d and \u201cEnter Sandman,\u201d the audience was treated to them both to close out the show on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Get Metallica Tickets Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall, Metallica performed five songs from their 1991 mega-selling \u201cBlack Album,\u201d including \u201cThe Unforgiven,\u201d \u201cWherever I May Roam,\u201d \u201cNothing Else Matters,\u201d and \u201cSad but True,\u201d in addition to the aforementioned \u201cEnter Sandman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Video<\/p>\n

Ride the Lightning was also well represented, with \u201cCreeping Death,\u201d \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls,\u201d and \u201cFade to Black\u201d played from the band\u2019s 1984 sophomore album. Aside from those two LPs, there was no more than one song performed from any other album.<\/p>\n

As with other shows on the \u201cM72\u201d tour, bassist Rob Trujillo and guitarist Kirk Hammett teamed up for a \u201cdoodle\u201d jam celebrating music local to the venue, this time playing \u201cZorba\u2019s Dance\u201d and Trypes\u2019 \u201cDen Choras Pouthena.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metallica\u2019s UK\/European tour will run through a two-night stand in London on June 3rd and 5th, with tickets to the remaining shows available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Get Metallica Albums on Vinyl<\/a><\/p>\n

After a long break in the summer, Metallica will kick off their 24-date \u201cLife Burns Faster\u201d residency<\/a> at Las Vegas\u2019 Sphere, performing \u201cNo Repeat Weekend\u201d shows on select Thursdays and Saturdays from October 1st, 2026, through March 13th, 2027. The band is also playing two nights at Mohegan Sun Arena<\/a> in Uncasville, Connecticut, on November 19th and 21st.<\/p>\n

Tickets to Metallica\u2019s Sphere residency and to the two Connecticut shows are available here<\/a>. See video footage and the setlist from the Athens concert below.<\/p>\n

Setlist:
Creeping Death
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Moth Into Flame
King Nothing
Lux \u00c6terna
The Unforgiven
Fuel
Kirk and Rob Doodle (\u201cZorba\u2019s Dance,\u201d Trypes\u2019 \u201cDen Choras Pouthena\u201d)
Fade to Black
Wherever I May Roam
Nothing Else Matters
Sad but True
One
Seek & Destroy
Master of Puppets
Enter Sandman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Metallica played their first show of 2026 on Saturday, May 9th, at Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, delivering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-422603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}