MetallicaAviva Stadium, Dublin★★★☆☆ Forty-five years into their career, Metallica have been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. They’ve sold a few of them, too, if tonight’s crowd are anything to go by - but the thrash metal progenitors have not endured for almost half a century for no reason. The Los Angeles band’s willingness to innovate has clearly paid dividends: their current M72 tour (a reference to their most recent album 72 Seasons), which has been running since 2023 and is now in its final weeks, has become one of the highest-grossing tours of all time.There have been a few missteps over the years, of course - let’s not mention Lulu, their grotesque collaboration with Lou Reed in 2011, or 2003’s St Anger, the painful soundtrack of a band in crisis - but James Hetfield and his bandmates are still standing, now older, greyer but no less enthusiastic. Rock’s great survivors? Perhaps. And as undeniably influential as the band has been across the decades, they are also canny businessmen: tonight is the first of two gigs on their “No Repeat Weekend”, which promises two completely separate setlists and ergo encourages die-hard punters to buy tickets for both nights. It is, you have to admit, a genius marketing strategy.Still, there is much to enjoy. The set-up is both impressive and inventive, an enormous stage in the round placed on the stadium’s pitch, with four mammoth speakers and screen rigs offering those in nosebleed seats glimpses of the band. In the centre is the “snakepit”, hosting a mixture of competition winners and fans who were willing to pay eyewatering prices for a close-up experience with their heroes. [ Drugs, divorce and incessant drum takes: Metallica on making metal’s biggest ever albumOpens in new window ]Taking the stage to Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy of Gold, Hetfield and his bandmates Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett brave the blustery showers and freely rove the rain-sodden stage throughout their 2-hour set. Ferocious opener Creeping Death, from 1984’s Ride the Lightning album, sets the tone, and the stealthy chug of Harvester of Sorrow still holds a weighty sense of menace. Leper Messiah is one of a smattering of deep cuts that delights ardent fans, but leaves Hetfield asking the crowd, “Are you still out there?”The crowd at Metallica. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/ The Irish Times The illustrated poster artwork featuring Phil Lynott that flashes on screen proves a tantalising bluff: there will be no Whiskey in the Jar cover tonight. Instead, a jam between bassist Trujillo and lead guitarist Hammett on Thin Lizzy’s Black Rose is delivered earnestly but cumbersomely. There are moshpits a-plenty too, but the infectious energy does not spread to the stands until much later in the setlist. The Day That Never Comes is a lugubrious beauty, the 62-year-old Hetfield’s voice still holding firepower; the excellent Orion rouses the crowd and leads into a mass singalong of the magnificent Nothing Else Matters. Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich perform at the Aviva. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw There are a few halfhearted puffs of pyrotechnics during Fuel, while a number of giant beachballs are unleashed during Seek and Destroy, providing a strangely incongruous alternative to moshing. Master of Puppets, an undeniable crowd-pleaser, closes the set; there will be no encore, no One, no Enter Sandman. Not tonight. As the band spend the final moments of the gig throwing guitar picks and drumsticks to the audience, it’s not “Goodnight and thank you” that they sign off with, but “See you on Sunday” for round two. It’s precisely what fans signed up for, but the ‘No Repeat’ aspect of this gig is what ultimately proves its downfall: stripping the setlist of some of their biggest crowd-pleasing hits feels like a missed opportunity for a truly great show.