When "Creeping Death" played on SiriusXM’s Maximum Metallica, the satellite radio provider's new channel dedicated to the renowned metal band, at noon on Friday, the last notes of Metallica's incendiary performance from the previous evening, under a massive tent behind the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, were still sounding in the cool late-summer air.
The South Fork hosts more than its share of celebrities, but it isn't every day that one of the biggest bands in the world performs in Amagansett. Fittingly, Thursday's annual SiriusXM concert at the Talkhouse drew a massive crowd — and attendant epic traffic jam — to the hamlet's commercial core, a crush of lucky contest winners impatient to burst through a massive security contingent at 5 p.m. and ready to experience a blockbuster concert alongside V.I.P.s including Paul McCartney, Howard Stern, Sylvester Stallone, Colin Jost, Edward Burns, Andy Cohen, and Chad Smith.
"We've never been here, so this is pretty cool," James Hetfield, Metallica's guitarist and vocalist, told the ecstatic crowd after a powerhouse opening salvo of "Creeping Death," "For Whom the Bell Tolls" — both from 1984's "Ride the Lightning" — and "Fuel," from 1997's "Reload." He, the guitarist Kirk Hammett, and the bassist Robert Trujillo paced from one end of the stage to the other throughout the nearly two-hour performance as Lars Ulrich pounded the drums behind them, an ear-splitting, breakneck-paced but impressively precise sonic assault from the first note to the last.
The band returned to "Ride the Lightning" with "Fade to Black," a ballad — albeit with raging, distorted guitars, including Mr. Hammett's shredding solo — from the perspective of a man contemplating suicide. "Sad but True" and the dirgelike "The Unforgiven," both from the eponymous 1991 release commonly known as "The Black Album," followed.
Metallica dusted off a cover, the traditional Irish folk song "Whiskey in the Jar," a hit for Thin Lizzy in 1972 and which the band issued on its 1998 album of B-sides and covers, "Garage Inc." Mr. Hetfield and Mr. Hammett then led a brief tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, co-founder of the pioneering heavy-metal band Black Sabbath who died in July, playing the riff of Osbourne's solo hit "Crazy Train."
"The Black Album" was revisited for "Nothing Else Matters" before Metallica reached all the way back to its 1983 debut "Kill 'Em All" for a rendition of "Seek & Destroy," before closing with a triad of hits: "One," from 1988's ". . . And Justice for All," "Master of Puppets," from the 1986 album of the same name, and finally the band's best-known song, "Enter Sandman," from "The Black Album."
Mr. Ulrich had announced the launch of Maximum Metallica on SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show" in a surprise Aug. 6 broadcast. The music of Mr. McCartney, a longtime, part-time East Hampton Town resident, plays around the clock on SiriusXM's The Beatles Channel. The musician and his wife, Nancy Shevell, took in Metallica's performance from the rear of an elevated V.I.P. section.
Metallica, often described as the definitive heavy metal band, was the latest in a concert series that has brought artists including Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Brandi Carlile, the Killers, Mumford & Sons, Dave Matthews, and, last year, the country and crossover artist Jelly Roll to the live-music venue, which over close to four decades has hosted surprise performances by legends including Mr. McCartney, Van Morrison, Billy Joel, and, earlier in August, Warren Haynes and Robert Randolph, who performed with a band that included G.E. Smith, who lives in Amagansett, the aforementioned Chad Smith, the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Andrew Watt, a musician and producer of the Rolling Stones' 2023 "Hackney Diamonds" album.
Formed in Los Angeles in 1981, Metallica released two albums on an independent label before signing to Elektra Records and issuing its breakthrough, "Master of Puppets." The group has released some 20 albums and sold more than 150 million units worldwide. It also endured the death of its bassist, Cliff Burton, who was killed when the band's tour bus crashed in Sweden in 1986.
A recording of the band's Stephen Talkhouse performance will premiere on Maximum Metallica on Monday at noon Eastern Daylight Time, with replays scheduled throughout the week. The full concert will also air on Mr. Stern's Howard 101 channel on Friday, Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. E.D.T.
