Large-eddy simulations (LESs) of an industrial gas turbine burner are carried out for both nonreacting and reacting flow using a compressible unstructured solver. Results are compared with experimental data in terms of axial and azimuthal velocities (mean and RMS), averaged temperature, and existence of natural instabilities such as precessing vortex core (PVC). The LES is performed with a reduced two-step mechanism for methane-air combustion and a thickened flame model. The regime of combustion is partially premixed and the computation includes part of the swirler vanes. For this very complex geometry, results demonstrate the capacity of the LES to predict the mean flow, with and without combustion, as well as its main unstable modes: it is shown, for example, that the PVC mode is very strong for the cold flow but disappears with combustion. (C) 2004 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All fights reserved..