72 Seasons

''72 Seasons'' is the upcoming eleventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica. It is set for release on April 14, 2023, by their own label Blackened Recordings. ''72 Seasons'' is produced by Greg Fidelman, who produced the band's previous studio album, '' Hardwired... to Self-Destruct'' (2016), and will be the band's second studio album to be released through Blackened.

Background

In an interview with Australian magazine ''The Music''s official podcast in March 2019, bassist Robert Trujillo said that Metallica had begun jamming on new material for its next studio album. "I'm excited about the next record because I believe it will also be a culmination of the two reviousrecords and another journey. There's no shortage of original ideas, that's the beauty of being in this band." He estimated that the album would be released "a lot sooner than the previous two did... this time around I think we'll be able to jump on it a lot quicker and jump in the studio and start working. We've all vowed to get this one going sooner than later."

In an interview with Australian magazine ''Mixdown'' the following month, guitarist Kirk Hammett said that the band had tentative plans to enter the studio after the conclusion of its WorldWired Tour in support of '' Hardwired... to Self-Destruct''. He stated, "We're in our third year since ''Hardwired''. Maybe we can get a bit more focus and go into the studio a bit sooner." Having not contributed any writing to ''Hardwired... to Self-Destruct'' after accidentally losing his phone containing riff ideas at Copenhagen Airport in 2014, Hammett said regarding his ideas for the new album, "I have a ton of material. I've over-compensated, so I'm ready to go anytime."

In April 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, drummer Lars Ulrich said in an interview with Marc Benioff that Metallica could work on its next studio album while in quarantine. Trujillo told ''The Vinyl Guide'' in June that the band was "excited about cultivating new ideas" for its new album. "We communicate every week, which is really great, so we have our connection intact ..what we've started doing is basically just really concentrating on our home studios and being creative from our homes and navigating through ideas and building on new ideas. And that's where we're at right now". He also said that the band was working towards eventually entering a studio to record the album. In November, Ulrich said in an interview with Phoebe Bridgers for ''Rolling Stone'' that the band was "three, four weeks into some pretty serious writing" and stated that "It's the heaviest thing, the coolest ..but all kidding aside, if it wasn't because we thought that the best record was still ahead of us, then why keep doing it?" He followed up in January 2021 by saying that progress on the album had been "glacial", while vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield said in May that "It’s either touring or writing, so COVID chose for us ..but, yeah, e will releasea bunch of songs. We wrote quite a few songs".

Title

On November 28, 2022, Hetfield commented on the album's title:

Release and promotion

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. The band subsequently released the album's first single, "Lux Æterna", along with a music video.

Track listing

Personnel

Metallica
* James Hetfield – vocals, rhythm guitar
* Lars Ulrich – drums
* Kirk Hammett – lead guitar
* Robert Trujillo – bass

Production
* Greg Fidelman – production, mixing, recording
* Sara Lyn Killion – engineering
* Jim Monti – engineering
* Jason Gossman – additional engineering, digital editing
* Kent Matcke – assistant engineering
* Dan Monti – digital editing
* Bob Ludwig – mastering
* David Turner – cover art

References

External links

''72 Seasons''
on the official Metallica website.

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2023 albums
Metallica albums
Albums produced by Greg Fidelman
Self-released albums
Upcoming albums