Metallica debut their biggest song — and one of James Hetfield's favorites — live

During the weekend, Metallica treated fans in Munich, Germany to a live debut of “Inamorata,” a track from the band's 2023 album 72 seasons and the longest original track in their catalog.

A fan video from the May 26 show captured the performance, with an introduction by James Hetfield. The frontman called “Inamorata” “one of my favorites” and said, “Well, I'm going to like it.”

Despite his enthusiasm, Hetfield prefaced his introduction with some seemingly self-aware — if ultimately — endearing words: “This next song we've never, ever played before. And, you know, in our band, we don't recognize the word “mistake” — because there are no mistakes. There are only unique moments that happen. That's what we have to tell ourselves.”

“Inamorata” closes 72 seasonsand Rolling rock highlighted the song in our album review, calling it a “master class in melancholy” and “a sprawling, 11-minute jam that slowly unfurls with muddy, growling riffs”.

The studio version of 'Inamorata' also ends with a bit of casual chatter, with the band talking about how it ends with the 'best button'. In an interview with Rolling rock, drummer Lars Ulrich explained this minor use of the song's language, saying, “Well, 'button' is a term for the end of a song. So the last beats or the outro is the button. If you talk to 10 artists, you'll probably hear 10 different sets of languages ​​and weird explanations for what they call things when they work together. What we call the end of a song is the button.'

Metallica's concerts in Munich over the weekend marked the start of their European tour, which is scheduled to run until mid-July. They'll kick off another North American leg on August 2nd at Gillette Stadium outside of Boston and wrap up with a four-night stand in Mexico City on September 20th, 22nd, 27th and 29th.