Watch Metallica Play ‘Lux Æterna’ Live For The First Time

On Friday night (December 16), Metallica hosted their third annual Helping Hands charity concert in Los Angeles, which benefits their All Within My Hands Foundation. The 14-song set began with acoustic renditions of “Blackened,” “The Unforgiven” and covers of Thin Lizzy’s “Whiskey In The Jar” and “Borderline," as well as UFO’s “It’s Killing Me.”

Near the end of the night, the band played their new single "Lux Æterna" live for the first time and brought out St. Vincent to help on vocal and guitar duties during "Nothing Else Matters." Earlier in the show San Francisco multi-instrumentalist Avi Vinocur also came out for “All Within My Hands.”

Watch fan-shot footage of the highlights below.

"Lux Æterna" is the lead single off Metallica's upcoming album 72 Seasons. The title refers to "the first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves," frontman James Hetfield said in a statement. "The concept that we were told 'who we are' by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adults experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry."

72 Seasons is slated for an April 14, 2023 release and will be the follow-up to 2016's Hardwired ... To Self-Destruct. A couple weeks later, they plan to embark on a massive M72 world tour.