Yesterday was the 35th anniversary of Metallica’s third album Master Of Puppets. Master Of Puppets is one of the all-time great thrash metal classics, and it’s also the best album that Metallica ever made. (This is a point of some controversy, but it’s also entirely true.) To mark the occasion, Metallica were musical guests on last night’s edition of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, and they spent their evening ripping their way through the Master Of Puppets opening sprint “Battery,” a song that’s basically guaranteed to jack your pulse way up.

Colbert just hosted Metallica on his show a few weeks ago. On the post-Super Bowl edition of the Late Show, Metallica busted out “Enter Sandman” while surrounded with artifacts of historical significance for the group. For last night’s performance, Colbert once again welcomed a video of Metallica in their practice space. This time around, they played in front of the banner from their Damage, Inc. tour — the same tour that killed Cliff Burton.

If this was weird for Metallica, they didn’t show it. They sounded titanic on “Battery.” We got the thing where some of Lars Ulrich’s beats seemed to arrive just slightly off, which somehow (at least for me) makes the band sound a tiny bit heavier. It reminds you that you’re watching human beings at work, you know? Also, I like the whole aesthetic of seeing this band in a practice space rather than in a stadium. In this setting, James Hetfield looks less like a world-conquering rock star and more like a tough middle-aged dad in his garage. Watch the performance below.

Here’s to Metallica playing old songs on TV whenever they feel like it, whether or not they have product to promote.