Ice Nine Kills frontman Spencer Charnas opened up about the life-changing lessons he took away from touring stadiums worldwide with Metallica in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Charnas reflected on what it meant to share the stage with one of the biggest bands in history. He described how Metallica’s treatment of their opening acts left a lasting impression on him.
“One of the biggest things that we learned from them is how well they treat the bands that open for them,” Charnas said. “When going into playing with a band like Metallica, you have no idea.”
“This is one of the biggest bands of all time — indisputably one of the biggest bands of all time; certainly the biggest metal band of all time — and so you have no idea if you’re gonna see them ever, or whether just get on stage and we’ll never see them. Either way, we’d be indebted to them for life. But they’re the kind of guys, we go into our dressing room the first night, there was this bottle of champagne and a cake that said, ‘Welcome to the circus,’ or something like that.”
Charnas went on to describe the genuine warmth and respect Metallica showed throughout the tour. He also drew a broader lesson from the experience.
“They all introduced themselves to us, I think, within the first couple of shows,” he continued. “They would watch our set. They would invite us to dinner sometimes after. And that really stuck with me. You should treat every band the same, with respect, no matter if they’re the smallest band in the world or the biggest. And that’s one of the biggest things that we learned from them.”
Beyond the personal interactions, Charnas also highlighted the professional growth that came from performing at such a massive scale.
“Other than playing in a stadium, which we had never done, in the round, which is such a different monster altogether. But [we] definitely learned a lot from playing those-scale shows, and I think it’s helped us when we go on to these other huge festivals,” he said. “We kind of are a little bit seasoned from having done the stadium thing, which, again, something that… What percentage of bands ever get to say they played a stadium, let alone with Metallica, all over the world?”
The remarks underline how the Metallica stadium run proved to be a defining chapter in Ice Nine Kills’ career, both on and off the stage.
Ice Nine Kills served as direct support for Metallica across the entirety of the M72 World Tour. The run spanned multiple continents and stretched across three consecutive years. The final 2024 leg of the tour closed out on September 29 in Mexico City, a night the band described as “absolutely bonkers” and one they called an honor to be part of.
The M72 tour was built around an unconventional in-the-round stage design that relocated Metallica’s famous Snake Pit to center stage. This placed the performers in the middle of the arena floor, surrounded by the audience on all sides. For Ice Nine Kills, adapting to that format required a significant adjustment in how they approached their performance. Charnas noted that the sheer size of the venues initially pushed him to overcompensate. He eventually realized that the video monitors did much of the heavy lifting. Smaller, more deliberate movements translated far more powerfully on camera than frantic energy ever could.
Charnas has been candid about the emotional weight of the experience. He admits that he still has to remind himself he is a performer on the bill rather than simply a fan in the crowd. “I still have to kind of pinch myself every time we show up at one of those stadiums and realize, ‘I’m not just going to see them. We’re on the show,'” he said. “And they’ve been so nice to us. They come into the locker room and say ‘what’s up’ to us. And they’re really sort of showing us the way of how, when you’re coming up, you take bands out, and take the bands out that you think are cool, and you treat them great.”
The relationship between the two bands extended well into 2025. Ice Nine Kills joined Metallica again on the next phase of the M72 run alongside Limp Bizkit, while Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies handled the alternate nights. The 2025 leg kicked off in May and ran through August, further cementing Ice Nine Kills’ status as one of the most prominent names in the modern metal landscape.
The experience has clearly shaped how Ice Nine Kills now carries themselves as a band. Having performed in stadiums across the world alongside one of rock’s most enduring acts, they enter every major festival and large-scale event with a level of confidence and composure that most bands in their position simply do not have. The lessons learned from Metallica — both in stagecraft and in character — appear to have left a permanent mark on how the band operates and how they intend to treat the artists who one day open for them.
Source: LA Lloyd
