Metallica have announced their highly anticipated new album, titled 72 Seasons. In advance of its April 14th release, the legendary metal band has unveiled the first single, “Lux Æterna,” and announced a 2023-2024 world tour.
72 Seasons marks Metallica’s first album since 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. The upcoming 12-song release clocks in at 77 minutes, and was produced by Greg Fidelman alongside frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich.
In a press release, Hetfield explained of the album’s title, “72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
The thrashy single “Lux Æterna” marks Metallica’s first new song in more than six years. A Tim Saccenti-directed video for the track can be seen below, while our review of the song and full lyrics can be found here.
Along with the album announcement, Metallica have unveiled dates for a massive 2023-2024 world tour that will see the band playing two dates (with unique sets) in each city, and feature such opening bands as Pantera, Mammoth WVH, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, and Architects. Get full details and dates here, and pick up tickets via Ticketmaster.
72 Seasons is available for pre-order in multiple formats and configurations via Metallica’s online store. Check out the video for “Lux Æterna” below, followed by the album artwork and tracklist.
72 Seasons Artwork:
72 Seasons Tracklist:
01. 72 Seasons
02. Shadows Follow
03. Screaming Suicide
04. Sleepwalk My Life Away
05. You Must Burn!
06. Lux Æterna
07. Crown of Barbed Wire
08. Chasing Light
09. If Darkness Had a Son
10. Too Far Gone?
11. Room of Mirrors
12. Inamorata
Photo Gallery: Metallica at BottleRock Festival 2022
