THEY play hard and fast and have been doing so for 36 years.

So the question on fans’ lips is often when will Metallica call it a day?

But if the California four-piece’s performance at Manchester Arena on Saturday was anything to go by, the band’s curtain call is still a long way off. Metallica, who are now in their 50s, played for more than two hours and relished every moment of interaction with the 21,000-strong crowd.

This was aided by a stage ‘in the round’ meaning the audience surrounded the group on every side and it gave all those seated a better view. Among those at the front were a 15-year-old girl who frontman James Hetfield dedicated a song to.

Elsewhere ‘metal heads’ of all ages were punching the air and roaring with approval after every song.

How many other metal bands can you say have such a grip on the mainstream? Among the highlights were the old school metal anthem Creeping Death, anti-war epic One, musical odyssey Master of Puppets and the brutal Spit Out The Bone.

Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo even played an instrumental segment of Oasis’s Don’t Look In Anger as bees emblazoned the screens in a tribute to the arena terrorist attack victims in a touching moment.

Metallica are immaculate musicians and the great thing about seeing the band after so many years in the game is witnessing how passionate they still are about what they do.

It was a show as much as a gig with pyrotechnics and cubes which moved and rotated while featuring images and videos. Giant cubes also appeared from under the stage during Now That We’re Dead for a tribal-esque drumming solo featuring all four members of the band.

And there were even drones rising above the group for Moth Into Flame, a song about the perils of fame, dedicated to Amy Winehouse.

“Metallica loves Manchester,” said Hetfield after a frantic two and a quarter hours. The feeling was mutual.