Virginia Tech hosted Metallica on May 7 at the campus’s beloved Lane Stadium, where the Hokies’ signature fight song, “Enter Sandman,” is customarily played to welcome their football team every game day. On this well-prepared special occasion, the song was played live by the band in the company of over 60,000 alumni, fans, and current students to conclude the concert as part of the band’s M72 World Tour.
Metallica set out on the M72 World Tour in 2023 in order to showcase their most recent album, “72 Seasons.” The legendary band started in Europe and hit major venues across North America over the next year of the tour. In September of 2024, the band announced that a show in Blacksburg would take place as a part of their tour, exciting fans across the country as Metallica’s music, especially their 1991 hit “Enter Sandman”, has been largely intertwined with the traditions surrounding Hokie football.
Virginia Tech’s football team began to use the song as entrance theme beginning in 2000, and the practice of jumping up and down to the song humorously started with a member of the marching band jumping up and down as an effort to keep warm due to the cold during a winter football game. The chilly band member was eventually joined by his fellow marching band members, sparking a tradition that is integral to Hokie sports.
This tradition has carried on for over 20 years, and when Metallica themselves came to Lane Stadium for the first time ever, the jumping of everyone in attendance during the band’s playing of the anticipated track caused a spike in levels of seismic activity on Virginia Tech’s Seismological Observatory’s helicorder and registered as a small earthquake.
“[The atmosphere of the concert was] absolutely insane,” rising Virginia Tech sophomore Aiden Ballvé said. “Our school is known for having the best college entrance in the nation. Take that and multiply it by ten.”
At the concert, Metallica played other hits of theirs, mainly from their albums “Ride the Lightning,” “Master of Puppets,” their most recent “72 Seasons”, and their self-titled record. However, the significance of “Enter Sandman” to the Virginia Tech community is undeniable.
Prior to the show, members of Metallica met with the Hokies’ head football coach Brent Pry, and were gifted team jerseys with the number 25, representing the years that the school has used the song as an introduction for sports teams. The meeting truly set the band’s visit to Blacksburg apart from a typical stop on tour.
“Virginia Tech having Metallica play at Lane Stadium really shows the spirit of the school and how Tech offers more than just amazing academics,” Ballvé said.
Not only has the concert brought nation-wide attention to the school and energized current students and alumni, but the event has solidified a connection to Virginia Tech’s unique school spirit for the incoming class of 2029, directly affecting students here at Stone Bridge.
“[The concert] makes me more excited to go because it shows that the football team using the song isn’t just like a one-sided fan thing,” senior and incoming Virginia Tech freshman Mejd Hutchison said. “They’re using the song because Metallica actually wants them to use it.”
