METALLICA - ‘72 SEASONS’

Writer’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Running over seventy minutes long, 72 Seasons marks Metallica’s return after their last release Hardwired… to Self-Destruct 6 years ago. The eleventh studio album is as much a rebirth as it is a testament to how far the band has come, marked by youthful rage and the wisdom of age. It’s Hetfield’s voice, in particular, we hear in the album, a voice influenced by divorce, rehab, self-exploration, and ultimately the childhood that led him to where he is today. Alongside the alarming neon yellow and black colour scheme and the desecrated mementoes of youth on the album cover, it’s a warning of what can happen if you become weighed down by your trauma and a testament to the strength it takes to face your past.

The title track, and fourth single released by the band, ‘72 Seasons’ summons demons from the outset with a searing ferocity straight from the bat. Over nearly eight minutes, the song takes listeners on a journey of the 72 seasons that conceptualise the album, with heavy riffs and rapid hi-hat patterns keeping the tempo anything but slow. Hammett highlights the main riff through the lead line with a powerful, wah-wah-inflected solo that tears through the middle of the track.

Instrumentally, it couldn’t differ more from the bleakness of the song’s lyrics. The permanent midnight referenced in the lyrics, alongside lines such as “violence, inheritance/wrath of man/thrive upon feeding on/72 seasons gone” speaks to the hardships in those first eighteen years and how that can feed into trauma experienced later in life. It’s not only the lyrics that drive the intensity of the track but also the delivery of the cadence. You can hear Hetfield almost spitting out the lyrics, punctuating each word and pushing the unrelenting track forward. If there’s a way to start an album, this is it.

Following this is ‘Shadows Follow’, which as the title suggests is all about running from the negative thoughts that hide in the recesses of your mind; even if you try to “free them/still my shadows follow”. It has that distinctive Hetfield-Ulrich sound that is distinctly old-school, so much so you can almost predict the next drum fill before you hear it (and that’s far from a bad thing). With a pre-chorus that draws influence to Black Sabbath in its darkness and riff that emphasises the diminished 5th, it’s undeniably heavy, reflecting the evil subject matter.

One thing that cannot be argued is the past influences heard throughout the record, ghosts of past albums (‘Load’, ‘Metallica/The Black Album’ to name a few) seeping into their new offerings. I preface with this, as I couldn’t escape the thought that the fourth track, ‘Sleepwalk My Life Away’ sounds like a hybrid of hit ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘ManUNkind’ from their last studio album. The four-on-the-floor intro alongside a powerful bassline delivered by Trujillo uses recollections of previous sounds to create a tighter track with the punchy mix by Greg Fidelman to really polish the song. That’s not to say there isn’t a vulnerability to the track, with lyrics “Should I fall down, I fall down/Would you come, you come ’round?” bringing a rawness to the track aside from the brunt of the instrumental delivery.

The same vulnerability is heard in the seventh track ‘Crown of Barbed Wire’, explored in Hetfield’s questioning, “Should I fall down, I fall down/Would you come, you come ’round?”. The suffering voice of a ruler watching it all fall to pieces indeed mirrors the battles the singer has faced in his own personal life. The track strives to show that vulnerability doesn’t mean sad and dreary music, however, with ‘Crown of Barbed Wire’ being one of the grooviest songs in this offering. With Hammett’s embellishment on the thematics of the riffs by doubling in a higher octave, it’s a powerful track with a lot to give. It’s one I’m excited to see live for sure.

Talking about Trujillo, it’s important to note his significant involvement in the record, seen most in his vocal additions to the album’s fifth track, ‘You Must Burn!’ showing how the band have approached the album with a collaborative mindset. The first time he has ever lent his voice to a Metallica track, Trujillo’s low vocals fit perfectly alongside the dangerous sound of the bass. The song has a very distinct ‘Sad but True’ sound to it as it stomps and broods with a classic Metallica-esque swagger.

It points a finger with lyrics such as “question yourself, you may learn/who’s the next witch you must burn,” inviting the reader to reflect and question their own darkness, instead of demonising and blaming another, a likely recollection to the parental influence which guides the album’s concept—the idea of parental forgiveness that comes from new (albeit aged) perspectives.

For an album that speaks to the realities of childhood, and how our perceptions of this develop as we grow, it’s no shock that the band perfectly approaches darkness as a part of an image, rather than the whole thing. ‘Chasing Light’ explores this from a youthful perspective, the imagery of an adolescent who has “lost his way through wicked streets,” yearning to reach the light. It’s a track where Hetfield’s vocals really shine, at times hitting the same range as ‘The Four Horsemen’, a track from their first album, which is an impressive feat. This is the best the vocalist has sounded in a long time. The singer stated that he addresses “vocals as another instrument,” and that is abundantly clear.

Nestled among stompy, riff-laden, mid-paced tracks such as ‘Chasing Light’ and ‘If Darkness Had a Son’ comes ‘Too Far Gone?’ a snappy track that builds the momentum towards the denouement of the album. The second shortest song on the album is a much-needed spark of energy packed into 4 minutes and 30 seconds. It perfectly celebrates the strength of each member—Hetfield using vocals to accent the snare hits of Ulrich, alongside Trujillo’s groovy bass delivery, rounded off by the refreshing texture of a dual harmony between Hetfield and Hammett. Overall, it’s a different feel to other songs on the album that questions: “Am I too far gone to save?".

The track that grabbed me most on my first playthrough was the final track, 'Inamorata', an eleven-minute track that is the longest song the band has ever released. There is melancholy beauty evoked purely from the title (which translated means a person's female lover) that is solidified ten-fold by the track itself. For Metallica, the mistress is misery, with the final track dabbling with the conflicting emotions of relishing her company while also wanting to hide her from the world.

It's as close to a ballad as we see on the album, a raw and agonising display of emotion that unfurls into snarling riffs and a dark bassline that stuns you to submission. The echoing harmonies of "She waits" further adds that ghostly chill to the song; it's a beautifully melancholy track that perfectly ends the album.

It’s hard to summarise what is great about the album without spiralling into another thousand or so words. To put it simply, it’s a raw tableau of trauma, age, and changed perspectives, with lyrics that strike the nerve from the first song to the last. Lyrically, it’s the most vulnerable we’ve seen the band, Hetfield in particular, and by God, does it pay off. Instrumentally, it has the classic old-school Metallica feel, laden with gargantuan grooves, pounding basslines and crashing cymbal accents that cements 72 Seasons as one of the best Metallica albums of the 21st century. After 40 years, Metallica still has a point to prove, and this album proves it by embracing the band’s legacy as one of the biggest bands in the world.