There’s a moment in Metallica, the new three-song concert video Apple released for the Vision Pro yesterday, where Metallica lead singer James Hetfield is kneeling on the edge of the stage, engaged with a single fist-pumping audience member. Hetfield leans in to within inches of his face as he and the fan scream, before the singer stands and moves on. The spotlight follows Hetfield away but the camera stays put, lingering as the concert-goer reacts to what just happened. He falls back against the crowd and then pitches forward, steadying himself on the stage, then buries his face in his elbow, crying.
In a lot of ways, Metallica is like any other concert video, frequently cutting between shots of the band members as they trot around the stage, others of the fans, both in closeups and in flyover shots that points straight down at them from above. (There are so many smartphones!) The roughly 25-minute video from a Mexico City show features three Metallica songs — “Whiplash,” “One,” and “Enter Sandman” — interspersed with documentary-style footage and voiceover from Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, bassist Robert Trujillo, and guitarist Kirk Hammett.
Apple’s 180-degree video format, combined with high production values and the Vision Pro’s sharp displays, ends up adding a lot of extra flavor. That moment with Hetfield and the fan is already very good concert video direction, but this presentation gives a visceral, emotional heft that I think would be hard to capture in 2D. The feeling that I was almost there as the camera tracked behind a cigar-smoking, life-sized-to-me Hetfield on his way to the stage made me think, “Oh wow, he’s tall.“ I got chills when “One” started (I’m a Person Of A Certain Age; I can’t help it), but I could practically feel my aging feet and lower back start to ache as Hammett stretched the song out with a lengthy solo and the crowd, which now had nothing to sing along to, lost some of its energy. The audience still went nuts for “Enter Sandman” after that, of course.
The Vision Pro’s Apple Immersive collection has gotten better in the last few months with the release of videos like The Weeknd: Open Hearts and the scripted fictional short film Submerged. Both are great, but although I’ve enjoyed the rest of the catalog, it often feels like its content is serving the immersive format, not the other way around. Metallica, on the other hand, isn’t just a good immersive video; it’s a good concert video, and it sets a bar that Apple should strive to keep meeting.
