The Pulse of Radio reports: METALLICA kicks off its first North American indoor arena tour in almost four years on Tuesday (October 21) in Phoenix, Arizona. The band staged a "dress rehearsal" show for 1,200 friends, family and fan club members at the Cow Palace in San Francisco last Friday (October 17), unveiling the group's new stage show. Drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse of Radio what fans can expect this time. "I'm not gonna give it all away but I can tell you, as should be no secret, that once again we are playing in the round, in the middle," he said. "We have a different stage — this is our fourth time playing indoors in the round, and once again it's different. It's a completely different thing than we've done before and there is a big-ass lighting rig above us, and there is some pretty cool stuff up there. It's pretty cool. I'm pretty psyched."

The 18-song set list from last Friday's rehearsal included five tunes from the new "Death Magnetic" album, as well as favorites like "Harvester of Sorrow", "One", "Enter Sandman", "The Four Horsemen" and "Master of Puppets".

Although METALLICA has played European festivals for the last couple of summers, and a few one-off U.S. shows, the band has not traveled extensively in North America since touring behind 2003's "St. Anger" album.

"Death Magnetic" has sold more than a million copies in the U.S. alone since coming out on September 12.

Check out pictures from Friday's rehearsal courtesy of photographer Alan Ralph: