Metallica is pushing a new level of immersion for their live show experience, releasing a concert experience through Apple Vision Pro this week that gets fans about as close to the band as possible, including standing on stage while the band performs.
Officially released for Apple Vision Pro users on Friday, the show takes high-tech footage Apple had compiled during the Mexico City stop for the band’s M72 tour last year, placing viewers everywhere from directly in the crowd, to above the stage and to right behind Lars Ulrich’s drum kit, close enough to see even the most minute bits of dirt catching on the high hats.
Metallica bass player Robert Trujillo surprised a couple of fans who demoed the show Friday at the Apple Store at The Grove in Los Angeles, unaware he was sitting beside them as they watched the show through the headsets, only to be greeted by the bassist once their six-minute demos were done.
“What’s so good about this is that you can really feel the live music, and you can feel the interaction between the fans and the band,” Trujillo tells The Hollywood Reporter. “You can look in the fans’ eyes, it’s like you can almost touch it.”
Metallica’s show is the latest in several music experiences Apple has developed for its Vision Pro line, having also made experiences with Alicia Keys, Raye and The Weeknd. In Metallica’s case, the full concert is about 25 minutes, taking fans through three tracks: “Whiplash,” “One” and “Enter Sandman.”
The result, at least from the snippet Apple offered to press Friday, is impressive, giving viewers a more all-consuming perspective that would’ve never been possible in the past. Still, with the headset retailing at $3,500, few fans will likely be watching the whole show. But those without a headset of their own can have a chance at watching “Whiplash” during a demo at an Apple Store.
Trujillo recalled the first time he and the rest of the band first got a screening of the experience at their studio up in the Bay Area, recalling watching James Hetfield playing air drums to the songs as he watched himself singing.
“I found myself riffing and playing air guitar too, it’s almost impulsive,” he says. “That’s what I think the reaction will be for anybody who watches it, even people who’ve never seen Metallica or aren’t familiar, it’s hard not to get pulled into the performance.”
The Vision Pro show isn’t Metallica’s only digital-first music experience, with the band playing a concert in the popular video game Fortnite last year. “We try things, we experiment,” Trujillo says. “We come in with an open mind. We’ve done Guitar Hero, we played with an orchestra, that would’ve been sacrilegious in the early ’80s. As we get a little older, we like more experiences. This certainly falls right in line with where we’re at, we’re an open book to a lot of this stuff.”
Now that Trujillo’s seen his own band play in this way, he says his mind has gravitated toward what it would’ve been like if these concerts were available decades ago.
“It’s a very physical experience in a lot of ways. I would’ve loved to have this when I was a kid in the ’70s enamored with bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin,” he says. “Imagine seeing Jimi Hendrix playing guitar and having him right in front of you.”
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