Metallica brought years of pent-up excitement to Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium on Wednesday night, energizing the crowd with a live performance of the Virginia Tech Hokies’ iconic entrance song during a stop on their M72 World Tour.

It's one thing for the Virginia Tech Hokies to blast Metallica‘s "Enter Sandman" as the football team's game-day hype song when they take the field at Lane Stadium for home games. It's quite another thing for the band to play the song on the team's home field for the first time in front of a sold-out crowd primed to set things off.

As for the home team, the Hokies are coming off a 6-7 season that saw them go 4-4 in ACC play — good for ninth in the conference. They lost to Minnesota in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Head coach Brent Pry is entering his fourth season as Virginia Tech's head coach, with the Hokies posting a 16-21 record from 2022-24.