Closing out the second night of their celebratory homecoming with a sold-out weekend in the Bay at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium, Metallica completed the Northern California stop of the M72 World Tour in grand fashion. 

Commanding a crowd of some 60,000-plus devoted fans, the band began their stage time, much like they did on night one, with a entry that consumed the entire stadium and never relented. "Whiplash" took an entire stadium back to 1983 and proved a powerful reminder of perennial shelf life of Metallica's catalog. Packaged back-to-back with "Ride the Lightning" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls," it was clear Metallica was starting at a full sprint. 

Even the band's newer selections from their  72 Seasons album landed with similar effectiveness. Charging through "Lux Æterna" and "Screaming Suicide," modern era cuts worked in seamlessly with a collection of classics in a way that only Metallica could pull off. Offering a nod to their punk roots and their Bay area lineage, the band would even noodle around with an impromptu, stadium-sized singalong leading the fans in belting out a verse of Dead Kennedys' "California Über Alles". 

As for the second half of the set, it was a succession of anthems that functioned like a game of "Can You Top This?" From "Welcome Home (Sanitarum)" to a cluster of Black Album anchors with "Wherever I May Roam" and "The Unforgiven" - every selection was instantly identified - electrifying the fans and scoring a roar that rounded the entire building. 

Completing the performance with a pair of the greatest genre entries of all time, Metallica executed the dramatic one-two a powerful rendition of "One" that leveled Levi's. Wasting little time while the fans were still on the ropes, Metallica land a final haymaker with the forever hit, "Enter Sandman" that was as joyous as a metal song could be. 

Capping a weekend that proved Metallica remain as masterful as ever, their return to the Bay on the M72 World Tour lived up to the hype of one of the most anticipated events of the year and further cemented the band as a pillar of metal - now and forever. 

See the images of night two of Metallica's Northern California  M72 World Tour stop at Levi's Stadium along with special guests, Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies. All images by Maurice Nunez. 

METALLICA 

PANTERA

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES