It’s always hard to know what to expect when you play a new record from a legendary band with a revered body of work behind them. And, when you have heard it, it’s always tempting to hold it up against the band’s classics as a point of comparison. This is certainly the case with Metallica; inarguably one of the biggest bands to have ever graced the metal genre. In fact, you could make the argument that only genre pioneers Black Sabbath have had a bigger cultural impact on metal than the Californian thrashers.
All of this is with good reason; when they’re at their best Metallica has made some of the highest quality, most influential metal music of all time. Their latest offering, ‘72 Seasons’, is the San Francisco-based foursome’s eleventh studio record, their first since 2016’s ‘Hardwired… To Self Destruct’, and second to be self-released on the band’s own label, Blackened Recordings. So with all of that in mind, how does ‘72 Seasons’ hold up?
It’s probably no surprise to say that this record is unlikely to be considered to be as influential or brilliant as classics like ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘Ride the Lightning’ or ‘Metallica’ (better known as The Black Album) in their canon. However, it’s still a great record that will more than satisfy long-time fans of the band. If you separate ‘72 Seasons’ from Metallica’s back catalogue and purely take it on its own merits, you’ll find a superb metal album that stands a head and shoulders above the majority of metal bands releasing music today. No band with four decades of touring experience under their belt has any right to sound this heavy, vital, or explosive. Yet here Metallica are, continuing to do so even as they approach their 60s.
For the most part, the Metallica we get on ‘72 Seasons’ is a slower and more contemplative band than they have been throughout much of their career. While they’ve never been strangers to a longer song, final track ‘Inamorata’ is the longest song they’ve ever put on a studio record (unless you count ‘Lulu’, their divisive collaboration with Lou Reed) clocking in at over eleven minutes. That’s not to say the album is any less heavy for it though; it starts out loud and doesn’t let up without even a hint of a ballad across the entire runtime. As always with any Metallica record, the guitar work is a particular highlight, with James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett laying down groovy riff after groovy riff throughout. Vocally, Hetfield is in fine form, barking out the lyrics in his trademark gruff delivery.
For any band more than forty years into their career, the very minimum that fans will be hoping for when a new record drops is a few songs that will stand alongside the classics in a live setting. ‘72 Seasons’ comfortably delivers that, with a handful of songs that could slot into a setlist alongside many decades’ worth of classics. The title track and ‘Lux Æterna’ in particular stand out as likely additions to the live show when Metallica hit the road in support of ‘72 Seasons’. The latter is among the album’s standout moments, a pacy number with driving drums and riffing. It is – by some distance – the shortest track on the album with a superbly wailed vocal hook by Hetfield, and a ‘Master of Puppets’-esque solo from Hammett.
Four of the tracks on the album have writing credits for Hammett, who didn’t contribute from a songwriting perspective on the previous record after losing his phone containing all of his song ideas at an airport. The first that he helped write is the title track ‘72 Seasons’ which is one of the album’s finest songs. It’s a suitably pacy and bombastic number, with all four members of the band ripping through a whirlwind of modern metal. There’s also a run of three songs towards the end of the album that Hammett helped write, ‘Crown of Barbed Wire’, ‘Chasing Light’ and ‘If Darkness Had a Son’. Hammett has clearly been brimming with ideas, as this run of three is one of the strongest parts of the record. The latter is probably the best of the three, with an incredible, stadium-ready intro, chugging guitars, and gloomy vocal delivery from Hetfield.
‘72 Seasons’ doesn’t quite live up to the impossibly high standards Metallica set for themselves in the 80s and 90s, so if you’ve somehow not come across Metallica’s music before, you’d be best off grounding yourself in the classics first. However, it does serve up 77 minutes of the band’s signature metal sound, providing fans with plenty to get their teeth stuck into. Eleven albums and 42 years into their career, Metallica once again prove that even a record that isn’t their best work still stands head and shoulders above almost everyone else.
ASH BEBBINGTON