Metallica aren’t just heavy, they’re durable. A muscular band that simply won’t rust with the passing of time — more than 40 years of it.
With the release of 72 Seasons, the Bay Area rockers unleash their 12th studio album. Six of them have gone to No. 1 on Billboard 200, led by 1991’s The Black Album, which checked in for a full month at the chart penthouse and is recognized as one of the best-selling heavy albums in recorded music history.
Produced by Greg Fidelman with frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, 72 Seasons spans 12 tracks, including the previously released “If Darkness Had a Son” and “Lux Æterna,” which the band performed on late-night TV earlier in the week, the first of a week-long residency on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The new collection clocks in 77 minutes, all of them meaty, and it’s the followup to 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, which led the Billboard 200 for a single week.
Speaking on the meaning behind the album and its title, Hetfield remarked, “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.”
Much of our adult experience is “reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry,” he continues.
It’s fair to say, these Rock And Roll Hall of Famers have figured out who and what they are.
Live action is coming soon, with Metallica kicking off their M72 World Tour on April 27 at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena.
The fresh set dropped at the stroke of midnight, via Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings.
Stream 72 Seasons below.