This is Metallica at 60 – or very nearly anyway.
More than 40 years into a hall of fame career, the Bay Area-based titans of heavy metal dropped their 11th studio album, “72 Seasons,” with listening parties in movie theaters across the country last Thursday.
“72 Seasons” provides a little for Metallica fans of all eras. The sound is largely contiguous with their last two releases, “Death Magnetic” (2008) and “Hardwired . . . to Self-Destruct” (2016).
This album finds James Hetfield, 59, Kirk Hammett, 60, Lars Ulrich, 59, and Robert Trujillo, 58, still experimenting at times, but content with where they are in their career.
“72 Seasons” features flashes of brilliance along with the take-no-prisoners mentality that made Metallica the biggest of the Big 4 of thrash metal, giving some credence to the adage that age is really just a number.
They’re not the only ones, either.
Even as members approach eligibility for Social Security, Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax are still going strong, while members of Slayer officially retired in 2019 for health reasons.
The opening track, “72 Seasons,” sports a very thrashy opening riff and then settles into a (slightly) slower, heavier ’90s Metallica vibe before the chorus steps up the tempo again.
It’s a good introduction as the rest of the album shifts from heavy and ever-so slightly slower to full-speed thrash metal.
The fourth track, “Sleepwalk My Life Away,” highlights a rasp in Hetfield’s voice that serves as a reminder of his 40-plus years at the mic and the mileage he’s put on his larynx.
“Take a deep, waking breath/ Hope the blood arrives/ Burn my eyes with the sun/ And pretend I’m alive,” he sings as Ulrich (drums) and Trujillo (bass) lay down a chest-thumping rhythm.
The lyrics sound like waking with a hangover, likely nodding to Hetfield’s career-long battle with alcohol dependency.
“You Must Burn!” has a very “Sad But True” feel, taking listeners back to 1991’s Black Album, officially titled “Metallica.”
The new track even borrows key words like “anger” and “misery” from the classic song, almost as if it were a spiritual sequel.
Halfway through, long-time listeners' ears are in for a treat with “Lux Æterna.”
The first single released is the fastest and most classic Metallica song on the album. Clocking in at just 3 minutes, 22 seconds, it could easily have featured on 1983’s “Kill ’Em All.”
Even the lyrics, “All generations/ Approaching thunder awaiting the light/ Full speed or nothing/ Full speed or nothing,” combined with Hammett’s frenetic guitar solo are eerily reminiscent of “Hit the Lights,” the opening track on “Kill ’Em All.”
Hell, the line “full speed or nothing” comes straight from “Motorbreath,” the third track on the band’s debut album.
Some might call it lazy songwriting, but it feels like an intentional nod to the band’s history.
“72 Seasons” features heavier riffs than the last two albums, which signaled a return to the band’s 1980s thrash metal roots.
“Seasons” is definitely more of an homage to their mid ’90s material that was in itself a departure from their early speed metal years.
Live sets in recent years have included more material from the Black Album, signaling a desire to get back to that style.
The new record definitely does that, but it also shows that these aging metalheads still have the thrash DNA.
Listeners get their money’s worth as “72 Seasons” has a run time of 1 hour, 17 minutes, features an average song length of 5:56 and wraps up with the 11-minute “Inamorata” – the longest song in Metallica’s catalog.
Longtime fans may be disappointed the album isn’t faster or heavier in spots, but there’s enough to placate even the most discriminating Metallica fans.
And let’s be honest, you can’t make “Master of Puppets” every time out. Widely considered Metallica’s masterpiece and one of the greatest metal albums of all time, 1986’s “Puppets” inevitably draws that unfair comparison with every new release.
Production values are high throughout the album and the Dolby Atmos mix means it’ll take advantage of spatial audio, as well as your home theater like few other albums.
Translation: none of the five (or seven) speakers in a home theater setup will go unused, ensuring that you piss off your neighbors even more effectively.
