‘Here to Stay': Metallica Crush Chicago With Live Performance of ‘Battery’

The last time Metallica played "Battery" was at Boston Calling on May 29. Surprisingly, throughout their entire European run, they never pulled it out.

On July 28, the Master of Puppets track made a triumphant return to the stage as the encore-opener for Metallica's Lollapalooza set in Chicago; fans can watch the full performance in the video below.

Watch Metallica Perform "Battery" Live at Lollapalooza

In an interview when Master of Puppets was released, Lars Ulrich explained about "Battery":

I think it's the ultimate ... "Fight Fire [With Fire]," at the time of Ride the Lighting, was the ultimate thrash song in terms of playing and songwriting. I think "Battery" is one step beyond that. Just sort of a lot of energy and aggression, but at the same time there's the odd melody thrown in on the guitar.

Even with the "step beyond" that "Battery" took, there's no question that it, and all of Master of Puppets, helped create new metal fans.

"The release of Master of Puppets in March 1986 brought both Metallica and thrash fully into the mainstream for the first time," biographer Mick Wall writes in Enter Night. "Although it would quickly come to represent the end of Metallica's association with the genre for those fans already in thrall to its snakebelly charms, the success of the album gave thrash a name and a face the rest of the previously disinterested rock audience could at last identity with."

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Metallica first played "Battery" live in Wichita, Kan., on March 27, 1986, and since then have played it nearly 1,000 times. The last time they performed it in Europe was on Feb. 12, 2018, at the Unipol Arena in Bologna, Italy.