Metallica Debut Their Longest Song — and One of James Hetfield’s Favorites — Live

Over the weekned, Metallica treated fans in Munich, Germany, to a live debut of “Inamorata,” a track off the band’s 2023 album 72 Seasons and the longest original track in their catalog.

A fan-shot video from the May 26 show captured the performance, complete with James Hetfield’s introduction. The frontman called “Inamorata” “one of my favorites” and quipped, “So I’m gonna like it.” 

Despite his enthusiasm, Hetfield prefaced his intro with a few seemingly self-conscious — though ultimately — endearing words: “This next song we have never, ever played live before. And, you know, in our band, we don’t recognize the word ‘mistake’ — cause there are no mistakes. There’s just unique moments that happen. That’s what we need to tell ourselves.” 

“Inamorata” closes out 72 Seasons, and Rolling Stone highlighted the song in our review of the album, calling it a “master class in melancholy” and a “sprawling, 11-minute jam that slowly uncoils with sludgy, snarling riffs.” 

The studio version of “Inamorata” also ends with a bit of casual chatter, with the band talking about how it ends with “best button.” In an interview with Rolling Stone, drummer Lars Ulrich explained this little use of songwriting lingo, saying, “Well, ‘button’ is a term for the end of a song. So the last few hits or the outro is the button. If you talk to 10 artists, you’ll probably hear 10 different sets of lingo and quirky explanations for what they call stuff when they work together. What we call the very end of a song is the button.”

Metallica’s Munich shows over the weekend marked the start of their European tour, which is scheduled to run through mid-July. They’ll kick off another North American leg on Aug. 2 at Gillette Stadium outside of Boston and wrap with a four-night stand in Mexico City on Sept. 20, 22, 27, and 29. 

From Rolling Stone US.