Metallica will stream their two upcoming 40th anniversary live shows for free

Metallica have now been around for 40 years, and the thrash icons are celebrating in style by bringing their two forthcoming anniversary shows to the masses in two separate free livestream events.

The shows are scheduled to take place at San Francisco's Chase Center – the same venue where Metallica recorded their S&M2 live album in 2019 – and will be watchable via the Coda Collection on Amazon at 9 p.m PT on both December 17 and 19. In-person tickets to these shows had previously been made available to members of Metallica's Fifth Member fan club.

“We’re looking forward to hitting the stage in San Francisco at Chase Center with so many of our friends visiting from around the globe those two nights next week,” Metallica said in a statement.

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“While we wish each and every one of you could join us, we know you can’t all be in the house. So we’re incredibly excited to announce that our friends at Amazon will be streaming both shows live, as they happen, worldwide and for free!”

The streams will be available on Amazon Prime Video – with or without a Prime on-demand viewing membership – as well as Amazon Music and Amazon Music's Twitch channel. 

The streams are described as “just the beginning” of an “extensive partnership” between the Coda Collection and Metallica, with upcoming content – including a series of films, documentaries, and additional material spanning the band's career – available throughout 2022.

And Metallica's 40th anniversary celebrations don't stop at the livestreamed shows; the band are also set to conduct essentially a San Francisco takeover from Thursday, December 16 to Sunday, December 19.

It'll include a block party, a concert by garage punk rocker White Reaper – opened by Lars Ulrich's sons' band, Taipei Houston – a show by Kamasi Washington, who earlier this year contributed to Metallica's sprawling Blacklist covers album with a new take on My Friend of Misery, several events pertaining to Blackened Whiskey, and tons more. For more information, head to Metallica's website.

Metallica is also teaming up with Amazon Music for The Metallica Takeover, a guest-hosted station where the band members will “break down stories spanning the evolution of their music."

For more information on either of the upcoming livestreamed shows, head to Amazon Music.

2021's been a year filled with anniversaries for Metallica. In an interview with Guitar World back in October, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett looked back in 30 years of the Black Album, calling it “the master key to everything." 

“There was a very, very conscious effort with The Black Album to not have the songs turn out like the ones on …And Justice for All,” Hammett said. “We wanted to get to the point quicker and sooner. It was an exercise in restraint, which was progress for us. And at the other end of it, we went full-in on the recording of it and the execution of it. 

“It was probably the most extensive recording we ever did. And a lot of that was because we were working with Bob Rock for the first time, and we really wanted the album to sound above and beyond anything we’d ever done.”