Metallica performed “Seek & Destroy” live in Santa Clara on June 20, 2025, delivering a high-energy finale that shook the stadium and thrilled fans from start to finish
Levi’s Stadium crackled with pent-up electricity on June 20, 2025, as Metallica’s hometown faithful crammed shoulder-to-shoulder for night one of the M72 World Tour, bracing themselves for the inevitable battle cry of “Seek & Destroy.”
Minutes before the encore, James Hetfield paced the circular 360-stage like a lion ready to pounce, grinning as chants of “Bay Area thrash!” rolled down from the upper deck—proof that four decades on, the region still claims the band as its own.
When the opening E-minor riff finally bit into the warm California night, 68,000 voices detonated in unison, echoing across San Jose’s distant hills; the din rivaled the legendary 1985 Day on the Green roar that first cemented the song’s live reputation.
“Seek & Destroy” has always been Metallica’s invitation to chaos—born on 1983’s Kill ’Em All and refined on stages from tiny clubs to Moscow’s Tushino Airfield in ’91—yet Santa Clara’s rendition felt freshly volatile, as if the band were re-cutting the track in real time.
Hetfield barked the verses with gritty precision, then leaned back to let the audience finish each line; the resulting call-and-response rolled like stadium-wide thunder, rattling LED boards and shaking GoPros clutched by fans in the snake pit.
Kirk Hammett’s solo landed with searing clarity, his wah-drenched bends spiraling skyward while slyly weaving a phrase from “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”—a cheeky nod to the city that birthed both hippie psychedelia and Bay Area thrash.
Rob Trujillo anchored the mayhem with thunderous low-end runs, twice locking eyes with a banner reading “Cliff ‘Em All Forever,” then dropping a brief bass flourish reminiscent of Cliff Burton’s early live improv from the Stone club days.
Lars Ulrich punctuated every chorus with cymbal chokes timed to stadium pyros, recalling the stop-start aggression he perfected on the damaged-justice club circuit; his grin widened each time the crowd nailed the “Searching…” refrain without missing a beat.
The in-the-round stage multiplied the frenzy—fans at every vantage point felt moments away from a fist bump with Hetfield—while eight towering monolith screens hurled close-ups of pick scrapes and sweat-beaded brows to the farthest reaches of section 400.
Generations collided: parents in faded Ride the Lightning tees hoisted grade-schoolers wearing brand-new 72 Seasons hoodies, proving “Seek & Destroy” still unites the old guard and the newly converted beneath the same hammer-struck riff.
Real-time phone footage flooded social media before the final chord decayed; within hours the Santa Clara clip trended worldwide, fans marveling at a crowd-surfing inflatable “M72” ball that bounced perfectly in sync with Hetfield’s down-strokes.
Outside, merch lines snaked well past midnight as limited posters featuring a stylized skull-and-crossbones Levi’s Stadium logo sold out in minutes—quickly advertised online as coveted trophies from “the night ‘Seek’ shook the South Bay.”
Veteran tape traders compared the show to the ferocious Mexico City 2009 and Québec 2015 takes, arguing Santa Clara’s sheer volume placed it in the upper echelon of “Seek” recordings—an unexpected feat in an era of strict stadium noise ordinances.
For long-time Bay Area thrashers, the performance felt like a full-circle victory lap: the same song that once leveled tiny Mabuhay Gardens now thundered across an NFL venue only 50 miles south, proof that youthful aggression can mature without losing its bite.
As “Seek & Destroy” closed with its quadruple-time finale, Hetfield growled “We’ll see you again—until then, keep seeking, keep destroying,” cementing June 20, 2025, as another chapter in the track’s storied live saga and sending fans into the night buzzing with adrenaline.
