Charlie Benante Names the Song He'd Love to Play With Metallica

Last Friday (Aug. 18), Pantera (and Mammoth WVH) opened for Metallica at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (as part of Metallica’s “M72 World Tour"). The same day, drummer Charlie Benante humbly took to social media to share some pictures of him sitting behind Lars Ulrich’s drumkit, and in doing so, he revealed which Metallica song he’d love to play with his fellow thrash icons.

In his Instagram post, the Pantera percussionist wrote:

I love the finish on @larsulrich kit, @officialtamadrums killed it! I wanna Play #ridethelightning with them, love that song!!Tonight we are playing @dallascowboys turf . I can’t help but feel the vibe of @dimebagdarrell and @vinniepaulabbott , it’s going to be an emotional one. @panteraofficial @metallica #cowboysfromhell #cfh #reganmacneil

You can see the post below:

Benante’s love for “Ride the Lightning” isn’t too surprising given that he previously cited it as one of his Metallica favorites – alongside “Battery,” “Master of Puppets,” “Phantom Lord,” “The Four Horsemen” and “Orion” – when responding to a Revolver piece about Ulrich’s favorite Anthrax tracks.

One Instagram follower responded with an interesting idea regarding how the two bands could pay respect to each other: “You . . . should play Ride the Lightning and in turn we can see Lars take on [Pantera’s] Fucking Hostile lol.”

Elsewhere, someone else wrote: "I always thought it would’ve been super cool if all the big four bands had covered one of the other band songs live at that show…Like if Metallica cover ‘Reign in Blood’ and Slayer covered ‘Mechanix’ while Anthrax did ‘Holy Wars’ and Megadeth did ‘Only’ or ‘Caught in the Mosh.’”

That would indeed be very, very cool.

It's also worth noting that the second half of Benante’s post (about the performance being “an emotional one”) is in reference to the fact that Pantera formed in Arlington, Texas in 1981.

In related news, Anthrax frontman jJoey Belladonna joined Pantera on stage for “Walk” during Pantera’s show at St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater in Syracuse, New York on Aug. 8. Of course, Pantera are also included in Loudwire's photo gallery of Metallica’s North American tour kickoff!

Speaking of Metallica, we included the 1986 death of bassist Cliff Burton in our list of 10 bands who overcame huge tragedies. Plus, Ulrich recently clarified why the band’s “M72 World Tour” stage is donut-shaped, and guitarist Kirk Hammett pondered what 1988’s ...And Justice For All would’ve been like if Burton played on it.

Lastly, be sure to check out the upcoming dates for Pantera’s ongoing North American tour, as well as the upcoming dates for Metallica’s ongoing “M72 World Tour.” You can grab tickets for Pantera here and purchase tickets for Metallica here.