Metallica have released the official video of their performance of «The Call Of Ktulu» on the first night of their «Life Burns Faster» residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
“`The footage is from 1 October, when the band opened the run of shows with a 16-song set. While they played, a huge three-dimensional figure of Cthulhu, the creature from H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction, appeared on the venue’s circular screen and spread over and around the audience.
«The Call Of Ktulu» was the eleventh song of the night, between «Nothing Else Matters» and «Lux Æterna», and the band dedicated it to bassist Cliff Burton, one of its co-writers. The concert took place four days after the 40th anniversary of his death: Burton was killed on 27 September 1986, when the tour bus was involved in an accident in Sweden.
The instrumental closes the second album of the band, 1984’s «Ride The Lightning», and is credited to James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton and Dave Mustaine, who had left the band in 1983. The version recorded with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra for the 1999 live album «S&M» won a Grammy for best rock instrumental performance in 2001.
The first weeks of the residency have brought several surprises to the setlist. On 3 October «Devil’s Dance» was played for the first time in 18 years, while «Fade To Black» and «Until It Sleeps» were also added to the run of shows.
The «Life Burns Faster» residency consists of 24 concerts split into 12 «No Repeat Weekends». As on the «M72» world tour, each Thursday and Saturday pairing has two completely different setlists, with no song shared between the two nights.
The Sphere holds 17,600 spectators, stands next to the Las Vegas Strip, near the Venetian Resort, and relies on a 16K-resolution LED screen covering the inside of the dome. Before Metallica, U2, Phish, Dead & Company and the Eagles have played residencies there.
See also
Metallica: «Fade To Black» at the Sphere · Emmure and Metallica on politics in music.
