Metallica - 72 Seasons (New Album April 2023)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-7rWKnVVo

Metallica has confirmed the title and release date of its forthcoming 12th studio album: 72 Seasons will be available April 14, 2023 via the band’s own Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with founding members James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track album is Metallica’s first full length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.

Speaking on the concept of the album title, James Hetfield said: “72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”

Track listing:

72 Seasons
Shadows Follow
Screaming Suicide
Sleepwalk My Life Away
You Must Burn!
Lux Æterna
Crown of Barbed Wire
Chasing Light
If Darkness Had a Son
Too Far Gone?
Room of Mirrors
Inamorata

Of course it comes wrapped in the worst album cover of their career, and I'm including Lulu:

https://www.metallica.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-Metallica-Library/default/dwb70f835e/images/releases/72-seasons.jpg

*shrug*

Lulu has a great cover

Lux Aeterna rips. Cynics be damned.

Lulu has a great cover

Yeah, and it's a great album too. Lou Reed was a genius. *eyeroll emoji* *shooting-self-in-face emoji* (if there isn't one, there should be)

Xpost Wow. Yes, it's fucking great.

A little NWOBHM flavor

I dunno, I think this is a better album cover than their last one.

Song is nice, kind of a Motorhead vibe

xpost Yeah, seriously

I dunno, I think this is a better album cover than their last one.

The Hardwired cover was also bad. But at least bad in a dumb metal-dudes way. This one looks like a "lol what if the Minions were in a monster-baby horror movie?" Twitter meme.

was hoping 72 Seasons meant they were going to cover songs featuring the word Seasons, like "Seasons in the Sun" or "Seasons in the Abyss"

I don't even buy physical albums anymore so if the album cover is a literal dog turd, it's w/e to me.

though tbh I will probably buy a physical of this

(I buy digital albums, I don't just stream everything )

xxp: Vivaldi's The Four Seasons

This is all extremely Metallica, in an ideal way

Those drums are gridded up to fuck, Lars is gonna struggle to be that tight when they tour again.

I mean, that's the story of his life. he's always a little sloppy live but it's fine

I guess it's appropriate since it's an album about childhood by a band of 60-year-olds, but man, those are some anachronistic toys.

Not even mentioning the gun or knife or whatevers.

I still wanna know how Lars and Dave smoked hash through a hole in the ground.

cover art looks like some post hardcore math rocky thing which would be cool

Lol, good luck riding those kick drums, Lars. Prepare to cue the sample.

I dunno, this sounds pretty generic boogie metal, like Racer X or something, but I guess I don't mind.

My super Metallica-fan coworker sez: "Sounds well produced, isn't out of their depth, little bit of New Wave of British Heavy Metal inspiration"

Hetfield's vocal is pitch-corrected to such a degree it's actually distracting.

Lol yeah that long-held high note in the chorus is really pushing it

This is ok, not an embarrassment and at this stage in Metallica's career "not an embarrassment" is pretty much an acceptable state of affairs. I note from Wikipedia that James' son is a drummer, maybe it's time they took him out on tour as Lars-backup as a precursor to shifting the line-up entirely to their offspring once the rest of them come of age.

Greg Fidelman has an interesting engineering/mixing history, Adele, Toploader, Slipknot, Slayer, The Gossip, Supergrass, Neil Diamond

Drums so quantized it sounds like 80s ZZ Top

hardwired was fuckin great, really looking forward to this

If Darkness Had a Son

lmao at this song title though

ok have now heard "lux œterna" and yes doing a straight up throwback to their roots feels great, sounds good on them, fuckin' hyped for the record

The Autotune on James's voice has been really annoying for years. They even used it heavily on S&M, he sounded so robotic

These guys are still making albums?

Nope just fake albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsS5nw-U0iU

consider: james without autotune

have zero interest in seeing these guys live but it's pretty, i dunno, neat? enterprising? something? that their upcoming tour is a 2-night ticket type of deal

Cocktails and canapés with Metallica

I feel like the cover would be kind of cool if they took off the big M in the top right hand corner

why'd they break the crib

The instrumental part is actually very satisfying but everything about the vocals from the sound to the melody (minus the part where he says the track name which is actually p good) is dogshit

Cocktails and canapés with Metallica

https://i.redd.it/mi9my1snwrr21.jpg

I liked Kirk's solo in the new song

Going on the cover art, I’m looking forward to some ‘03 Dizzee Rascal influenced NWOBHM bangers

Fix up-ah
Whoao-oh look sharp-ah

The tones are pretty solid but it's still somehow dorky

It's probably Scientology propaganda

There's a very long and well-written for what it is profile of Metallica in the new issue of The New Yorker. It must have taken forfuckingever to write — there are quotes from all four current bandmembers, Dave Mustaine, Jason Newsted, Scott Ian, Ozzy Osbourne and probably some people I'm forgetting, and the writer (Amanda Petrusich) follows the band all over the place, to multiple concerts, rehearsals, and more — but the tone it takes, and its baked-in presumption that the New Yorker readership needs introducing to one of the five biggest bands on Earth, who would never sully their delicate shell-pink ears with rock and roll music, never mind heavy metal... it's kinda hilarious.

That’s the standard New Yorker tone, though… they’d write about Swiss cheese that way.

"This cheese has an unusual, remarkable feature: bubbles."

Not too bad, thought I caught a Diamond Head nod in the lyrics as well, makes sense given the NWOBHM vibe.

Yeah, it's actually cute how Hey alludes to "Lightning to the Nations", pretty much admitting that he's well aware of the resemblance to that track.

It must have taken forfuckingever to write

Amanda posted that it took a year.

The music is well crafted but unexciting. The vocals are goofy even for Het, lyrics are awful.

Like Hardwired, I'll listen to the new album twice and conclude it's ok.

I thought the New Yorker piece was pretty disappointing, tbh. She's a great writer, one of my favorites, but I was not convinced by the angle. Though I suppose a problem could be that in 2022, what the fuck are you even supposed to write about Metallica?

Like Hardwired, I'll listen to the new album twice and conclude it's ok.

St Anger was the first album I bought at midnight and put for sale on eBay at 2 am

They've pushed and pulled the fundamentals of the music around in various ways over the years, but I wonder quite what is there left to say when you more or less wrote the book with your first few records, been the biggest rock band, toured the world loads of times.

A collab record with Peter Brötzmann, Colin Stetson, or Yamantaka Eye would probably kick ass, but the fanbase would get all huffy and confused.

Lux Aeterna kinda rips? I loove how fast it is and i love Kirk’s solo. Soundwise to me it’s still in the same world as the last album, like they left it off bc too fast, but i guess i hear a little nwobhm in there too

idg what the title means or why theyre singing about it but i don’t think that it matters

the album cover looks pretty uh dumb to me but you can’t win them all

Bunch of assholes.

Xpost it's about the thread on I Love AFL

lol

mr veg and i were idly speculating on the album title & i was like well 72 divided by 4 is 18 maybe it’s like 18 albums and he was all maybe they mean concert seasons outdoor & stadium (cue me laughing and eyerolling)

then this from hetfield soooo i guess the meaning is “i’ve been doing a LOT of therapy”

72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.
— James Hetfield (2022)

Prisoners probing possible personality pigeonholing.

can't kill 'em all.

:(

I don't like the new lyrics to "Dyer's Eve"

New song - "Screaming Suicide". Sounds like something they'd have written around the time of Death Magnetic; it has that same thrash-boogie feel. But the sound is crisper than Death Magnetic's was. Also, Hetfield has lost a bunch of weight and looks creepy now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDyDpdFZHBo

I'm definitely feeling this a lot less than Lux Aeturna

It's unmemorable in the most literal sense — I've already forgotten how it goes. But at least it's fast, and I'll wind up listening to the album a thousand times just like I've done with Death Magnetic and Hardwired..., so it'll sink in eventually.

This sounds like so much generic stuff that would just fill space during "Headbanger's Ball" in the '90s.

Also, Hetfield has lost a bunch of weight and looks creepy now.

How can you tell through all the Vaseline smeared on the camera lens?

Director: "Ok, now make one of those crazy Metallica grimaces, you know the ones, the ones you always do? The ones that look like you are both constipated and also very angry? Do one of those!"

I'm too afraid I'll be disappointed to press play.

I'm pretty gutted that the year I might finally see Metallica live is one in which they'll be releasing a new album.

This sounds like so much generic stuff that would just fill space during "Headbanger's Ball" in the '90s.

to me this is like a 5-star review

Butt metal.

i preferred the first single

i don’t dislike it & its fine for standard metallica - they’ve been doing versions of this song since Load. they all sound like “intense workout metal for Leg Day” to me lol

"I had an AI write a 21st century metallica song" vibes

I hate it when their riffs get bluesy.

More like greysy.

lol yeah their bluesy influence usually never comes off well. that one very stonery riff before the verse isn't bad per se but it just doesn't really fit their sound.

be like Slayer throwing in a ZZ Top riff

'Hardwired' had the right amount of evil-sounding half steps to stir up the right Metallica memories

Also in retrospect it's kind of incredible that they went so far as to have a Megadeth-style ellipse title but didn't add the exclamation point

shoulda used a question mark to keep it separate enough

"Killing is My Business...How are Margins Looking?"

Not about the new album but I finally listened to these Death Magnetic demos. Neat listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5lPY6bTqU

Third single: "If Darkness Had a Son." Big 'n' heavy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_t53a5Ons0

lmao "if darkness had a son"

sorry just had to get that out of my system

lol. The cymbals are all EQ'ed to sound like splash cymbals, it's very silly.

if darkness got conned over a aol beef

*sonned (f-in autocorrect).

if darkness had a son
would fellow men take him to their hearts

not sure about the hook but the riffs in this one are good and the half-time breakdowns are kinda nasty go off lars

been in a meeting but dying to hear this so I can have an opinion on it and tell everybody what it is

You've come to the right place!

this is "Eye of the Beholder 2" so far

it's decent, maybe a B-. I like the main riff. I even like the verses. chorus isn't bad, but song doesn't justify the length at all. it just goes nowhere.

first three singles off of Hardwired > first three off of 72 Seasons. though I think I like this one and Lux Aeterna, so that's a step.

'Pandamonium' era Killing Joke vibes

Looks like a Tool video

once again the half-time sections of "if darkness had a son" are so sick

Wow, a good one, this would have fit into the handful of really good cuts on the previous album.

I thought he said "choking on steak fries", but apparently it's "stage fright".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OeC9CGtWcM

Pinball Wizard thrash

As with the last album the guitar and drum sounds are really reminding me of Psalm 69-era Ministry, and I'm not complaining. Very much looking forward to this album.

Thoughts:

Solid B to B minus. But here are my gripes:

-Why is this 8 minutes long? Out of all of the intense thrashers on Hardwired, the longest was "Spit Out the Bone" at 7:10, but that one actually had several different parts in it, twists and turns. This one could have had a verse and chorus cut out and lost nothing

-James's ability to write catchy vocal melodies seems to fade more and more. This one's not bad but the verse is very autopilot

-Kirk's solos are complete, as Lars would say, "stock". Also someone please take away his wah pedal.

That being said, I do like the song, but I wish it was 4 minutes long

Sure, of course they've run out of new + good riffs and melodies that also sound like Metallica, but at least they sound like they're trying on this one.

I mean I think this is probably the second best of the songs that have been released, not because it's 'fast', but because the verse/chorus are pretty well put together. just was hoping it'd be more economical given its arrangement.

Well my own expectations have skyrocketed, because this track is outstanding. I've enjoyed all four tracks thus far, but there's something special about this one. The "wrath of man" riff is killer, Lars brings in fun dynamics, and it really sounds like the guys are having fun, which isn't something we've heard a lot of in the last 25 years.

My expectations are extremely low these days, basically I like it when they play fast.

I skipped the other two singles, but I like this a lot. I'm excited.

But could they have picked a worse steaming pile of shit for openers on this upcoming tour? Yikes.

On November 28, 2022, Metallica announced the album's title, release date, tracklist and a promotional tour of North America and Europe, featuring Pantera, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, Greta Van Fleet, Architects, Volbeat, and Mammoth WVH, titled the M72 World Tour.

lol Ice Nine Kills

Yeah, that is one dire list of openers. I'd never heard Ice Nine Kills or Architects, so I checked them out and, well... Architects are basically a Linkin Park clone, and INK are shitty screamo with tons of horror-movie iconography. Old-man Metallica fans are gonna want to pelt them both with batteries.

do Metallica even listen to these bands, or are they giving the kids what they think they want to hear?

Lars picked 'em, I guarantee it.

i’ve thought for years that lars has good taste bc he personally introduced hot snakes at the first orion fest

Every person I see with an Ice Nine Kills shirt looks like Devon from Letterkenny

Even a fool can understand how awesome Hot Snakes are.

Greta Van Fleet is goona do a MOP ripoff album next aren't they

i mean...

Pantera - not even the real band anyway, just two months ago a German festival dropped the reunited version for Anselmo's racist bullshit
Five Finger Death Punch - just terrible music made exclusively for cops and soldiers afaict
Ice Nine Kills - haven't heard a second of their music, but the whole vibe just screams noon opener for a bush league Gathering of the Juggalos
Greta Van Fleet - hobbit Led Zep cosplay band
Architects - terrible British nu-metalcore clones from what I can tell
Volbeat - by default the best band of the bunch, imho
Mammoth WVH - not my thing at all, but Wolfgang seems like a good dude

just heard "72 seasons" and wow that is a dope metallica song

xp last time they were in the UK (2019) they had Ghost open for them, not my favourite band but definitely a proper metal spectacle before the main event

and some Danish band (probably a Lars connection there) who were definitely not my thing but having a great time playing in front of a massive audience

i wish they'd take Angel Witch out

Budgie, Diamond Head and Mercyful Fate

got tickets for the 2nd show on the tour (amsterdam saturday night, flying in for the weekend) - very excited but yeah five finger + ice nine as openers is HELLA LAME. thinking back to last Slayer UK tour which was SLAYER + Anthrax + Lamb Of God + Behemoth....

sadly, Burke Shelley being dead probably makes the former impossible, but the latter two definitely possible! Diamond Head have a new vocalist now (no more Harris) but he's really good and they put out a few good albums w/ him, and Angel Witch put out an incredible album in 2019.

Metallica, Diamond Head, Angel Witch, Mercyful Fate, somebody make this happen now.

shit opening acts = more time to drink

oh don't think i've not thought of that already. need to drink until Lars sounds like he's in time with the rest of the band.

The two times I saw them in 2008/2009 the openers were Machine Head & The Sword, and Lamb of God & Volbeat.

I saw them once in '04, looks like the opener was Godsmack who I must have skipped.

always love a band whose first hit single is them whining about how they're doing the best they can

I saw them at Earls Court in, I think 1996 - the tour when they were doing a Garage Days 2nd encore. They had Corrosion of Conformity in tow...

heh I saw them on that tour. my first metal show.

I'm about eight tracks deep and the new album...is good! Big-ass riffs, same Ministry-in-1992 guitar and drum sounds as the last album. Hetfield's vocals are really strong, though I'm not paying attention to the actual lyrics because what am I, an asshole? Will I make it through all 78 minutes every time I put it on? No. Will I listen to portions of it several times a month like I do with Hardwired and Death Magnetic? Probably, yeah.

not sure what to think yet other than...

i haven't really hated or even disliked any of the songs, really. there are catchy moments throughout

but also I have 26 minutes left of this thing and good god, it hasn't earned the length.

the highs are definitely not as high as Hardwired though.

going to finish it up and then give another listen tomorrow.

I do like "Chasing Light" quite a bit

I feel like the second half is stronger than the first, weirdly

I actually liked the second half quite a bit tbh.

I like "Inamorata" quite a bit as a closer, this is the first one to have extended instrumental breaks that remind me of their heyday, even if the chorus isn't...all that good.

(I'm just finishing now).

It sounds so repetitive in the middle, at least after three listens. When I hear the twin harmonies on the excellent last two tracks I'm all, "we needed more of THIS!"

But I will say that none of the weaker tracks are bad. There's no "Unforgiven 4" here. But I can't shake the kind of fatigue and depression I feel whenever I want to torture myself with Load/Reload deep cuts.

yeah the twin harmonies at the end were really nice and something they've really underutilized in recent years.

it really does feel like a 'there's nothing BAD here, but there's not much great here either' album.

I'll revisit this morning, but then I'm going to the new Overkill

also very little thrash here, they very much wanted to go to the NWOBHM well. which is cool! but there aren't many moments when you'll want to flail your limbs

The one weird thing that sticks out for me is, this is the first time they've included "studio talkback" stuff on a for-real album (as opposed to the Garage Days EP), and I don't love it or hate it, it's a value-neutral proposition for me, but I'm wondering why they chose to do it. To make them seem more human and less like cyborg riff machines? Unnecessary. But maybe Meshuggah should try that...

Anyway, I'm quite deliberately not paying any attention to the lyrics and focusing on the riffs, and...they rule. I made it all the way through twice yesterday and will go back again today.

lars absolutely killing it on this record :)

the opening of the first song has me mf hyped

If I'm being honest, after one listen to each, I prefer the new Overkill.

At an appointment with dad so Metallica back up next

I tried with the new Overkill, but as always, Blitz's voice is a deal-breaker. He's on the wrong side of the Udo line for me.

lol:

i'm getting reports our new video for metallica has killed dozens, perhaps hundreds of their fans 😓 if you're a fan of real music DO NOT WATCH pic.twitter.com/QgojsBd3NV

— sam rolfes (@samrolfes) April 17, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv5Rhp3fX60

I started watching that, but 1) super drummer vs. Lars is no contest and 2) I don't want to hear that song more than once, if that.

spent a little more time with this and i think it's the most consistent of their back-to-thrash releases even tho i mean "consistent" in a slightly damning way, like there are only a few songs as good as "all nightmare long" or the entire first disc of hardwired. still the title track has been stuck in my head for weeks. think every song is at least ok but the album really hits a stride from "lux aeterna" on and i kinda wish the album was the title track, "shadows follow," and then that run

pretty otm there. the songwriting is consistent, more of the bad excesses of Hardwired and Death Magnetic lopped out, and there's a better flow to each song, but at the same point, it's kinda like being a contact hitter in baseball, they're getting on base more, but it's mostly singles.

few songs that utterly blow me away. I've only relistened once since drop date. I relistened to Hardwired more.

I wound up watching a really well-shot audience cam of night two of the Amsterdam shows, and was struck by how it seemed more mechanical than you'd expect from Metallica. Minimal interaction, just two hours of material broken up into half hour quarters. No encores, no extras, just "Here's Enter Sandman, goodnight." And the band looks oddly dwarfed by the huge roller derby stage. The aerial camera angles are super cool, but I'm not sold on this in-the-round concept for football stadiums.

The way these shows are structured, they really want to coax fans to both concerts, which is understandable I suppose. Plus the guys probably don't want to do epic two and a half, three hour sets anymore. But having seen these guys play for nearly 40 years, this set felt oddly devoid of fun.

Though starting both shows with Orion and Ktulu is a wicked idea. Love it.

Hey would you look at that, Lars' dad is still around. 94 and I hope he's thriving.

v dumb metallica ranking ahoy

(lulu)
justice
kill 'em all
master of puppets
ride the lightning
st. anger
metallica
reload
hardwired.../72 seasons
load
death magnetic

I don't know about dumb, everyone has their own history with Metallica. Mine is probably:

And Justice For All / Ride The Lightning
Master Of Puppets
Kill Em All
Lulu
Hardwired / Death Magnetic
Black Album
72 Seasons
Load / Reload
St. Anger

The new one, the energy is there and I like the production but the riffs aren't that great and the songs all stretch out to lengths that can't be justified due to the (lack of) strength of aforementioned riffs, it's a real slog.

I guess it's a question of time until someone edits these songs down to a more concise "42 Seasons".

Master of Puppets
And Justice For All
Ride the Lightning
Lulu
Kill 'Em All
Metallica
72 Seasons
St. Anger
Hardwired
Reload
Load
Death Magnetic

Ok, here's my comprehensive list of Metallica albums that I would feel like listening to again

And Justice for All
Master of Puppets
Ride the Lightning
Lulu
Metallica
Hardwired
Load
Kill 'Em All

Master of Puppets
Lulu
Kill Em All
And Justice For All
Ride the Lightning
Black Album
The single-album edit Spotify playlist I made of Hardwired to Self Destruct

The single-album edit Spotify playlist I made of Hardwired to Self Destruct

Oh yeah obviously this is implied

if were just the first disc + "spit out the bone" it'd be right below ride the lightning on my list

haha i hadn't listened to mine in forever, and that's exactly what I ended up doing back then

Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
Now That We're Dead
Halo on Fire
Moth into Flame
Dream No More
Spit Out the Bone

"ManUNkind" is one of the dumbest song titles in history

Naming a song ManUNKind definitely makes it a funny Metallica alb

Xpost goddammit

Probably my favorite stupid song title since Yelawolf's "Slumerican Shitizen"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edkV2e0wYxs

god this song rules