ALBUM REVIEW – METALLICA :: 72 SEASONS
K-RPM’S 13-YEAR-OLD contributor, “JD”, gives us his opinion of the latest Metallica Album : 72 Seasons
As Metallica enter their forty-second year of releasing and playing life-changing thrash metal, this April the legendary band embark on a new world tour featuring their brand-new album 72 Seasons. It’s been six and a half years since they have released an album – 2016’s Hardwired … To Self-Destruct – the band announcing in November 2022 that a new album would come out in April 2023 making it their eleventh studio album. The announcement was quickly followed by the release of first single, Lux Æterna, a great taster for what was to come.
The album kicks off with the title track, 72 Seasons – opening with a head-banging thrash metal riff supported by a breath-taking drumbeat. The seven-minute opener progresses into a Whiplash-esque chorus before a surprising key-change leads us into a perfect fit of a guitar solo. Seven minutes felt like three. Second track Shadows Follow doesn’t disappoint either. A hard-rocking, simple catchy riff.
Throughout the album, Lars Ulrich’s drumming fits perfectly with the head banging riffs of James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo’s bass playing is much more present than the bass has ever been since the first three albums, notably in the third track Screaming Suicide and then, of course, in the fourth track, Sleepwalk my Life Away.
The slow groove of You Must Burn! Is followed by the first single, Lux Æterna which stands out as more of an early 80s heavy metal song than the other tracks. The song really shows us how Lars Ulrich is a master of choosing the best moments to use his double bass, his Motörhead style of playing always finding the perfect pattern for any Metallica song.
The second half of the album; Crown Of Barbed Wire, Chasing Light, If Darkness Had A Son, Too Far Gone?, and the at times Maiden-sounding Room Of Mirrors solidly continue in the same hard rock/metal Metallica-style we’d expect.
The final, progressive epic, Inamorata is the longest ever Metallica song, an amazing outro to the album with great beats and mind-blowing riffs with James Hetfield’s vocals at their peak of the entire album, this is the perfect conclusion to Metallica’s new album.
