METALLICA – 72 SEASONS Album review by KickAss Forever #metallica #72seasons #metallicalabumreview #72seasonsreview

Review written by John Erigo

Thanks to Nasty Little Man!!!!

Band – METALLICA
Album – 72 SEASONS
Release Date – April 14, 2023

The complete track listing for 72 Seasons is:

72 Seasons
Shadows Follow
Screaming Suicide
Sleepwalk My Life Away
You Must Burn!
Lux Æterna
Crown of Barbed Wire
Chasing Light
If Darkness Had a Son
Too Far Gone?
Room of Mirrors
Inamorata

In November of 2022 the mighty metal heroes METALLICA surprised the World by announcing a new album titled 72 SEASONS was on its way to us in April 2023. Along with the announcement the band also shared a video for the song “Lux Æterna”. A short riff layden blast of metal for us to all to chew on. So unless you’re not into rock, or live under one (LOL!), then you know about this album!

Before I dive in let me set this up for you so you know where I am coming from with this review. Back in 1981 myself, John Erigo, and my friend (the legend) Bob Muldowney (RIP), started the first East Coast (USA) independent Heavy Metal Fanzine called KICK ASS MONTHLY. 1981 – before cell phones, the internet, cable TV and so on. So just imagine someone coming up to you and saying “Hey I heard about this new band” and you don’t have the internet – no spotify, no MTV, no YouTube, no social media – how do you listen to them? It was a challenge to find bands back then. One day a demo tape from Metallica found its way to us. So just for the sake of you all knowing, I am about as old school as it can get with Metallica. I saw them before the first album was out, etc etc. That being said, as old school as I am, 72 Seasons kicks ass!! The questions I am sure most have are – Is it like the first 3 albums? Is it like ST ANGER? How’s the production? We metal fans are very hard to satisfy and a band as sacred as Metallica is often unfairly held to different standards and higher expectations than most bands.

So to address the big question – does this album hold up to the “old days”. That is probably the most unfair was to assess this album. Yeah, you’re immediately thinking “NO” is the answer. But the questions is SO unfair! Remember, the band is 40 years old!!! These guys are worth so much money, different lives, different experiences. Life changes you, so to expect them to sound like 4 20 year old dudes trying to take over the World to now, when they’re pushing 60 years old, with families and $100’s of millions of dollars, just isn’t fair. That being said 72 SEASONS is about as good as it can be for Metallica in 2023. It is a heavy album, and if you enjoyed the last 2 albums “Death Magnetic” and “Hardwired…To Self Destruct”, you will no doubt enjoy this album.

The sound and song writing has a different approach than the old days. Not as frantic (pun totally intended!). There is a lot of dynamics, a lot of staccato type of playing. Like the band all doing hits with Lars’ drumming. There is almost a groove to the rhythms, and I can see people saying that Metallica is more like AC/DC now in the sense there is a formula type of feel to the songs. The song that really caught my ear on the first listen was “Sleepwalk My Life Away” because of the cool intro bass groove provided by Robert Trujillo. Very cool the way him and Lars intro the tune. Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield’s guitars come crushing in over the groove – cool! After a few listens – remember please I have only access to the album for about 4 hours LOL! – I think I can say the more I listen, the more I hear things I missed. There is a LOT of stuff going on in these songs, lots of riffing. The song “Too Far Gone?” has some really well crafted riff changes and little nuances thrown into the verses. The “Ah! Ah!”‘s are snuck in there in a crafty way. The tightness of this line up really shows on this track. “Room Of Mirrors” is another song with some cool riffs over a faster upbeat.

Most of the songs are long-ish. Five and a half minutes of longer. The album closer “Inamorata” clocks in over 11 minutes. Inamorata is a person’s female lover (Italian). There are some pure  Black Sabbath moments during this one – the Iommi influence in riff writing is fully evident here. Even though most of the songs are longer by standard rock/metal standards, they don’t seem it. There is so much going on in them that your attention is fully required making a 7 minute song seem shorter.

So yes, this album is VERY enjoyable and I am so honored to have heard it before it came out. Massive thanks as always to Metallica’s PR firm Nasty Little man for always keeping me in the loop. It is extremely appreciated!!! If you want to hear I feel about this album – I was interviewed by my longtime buddy Jason Houston just after the 3rd single/video for the album was released – you can see it here —>

Jason has interviewed me many times over the years and we’ve started a monthly series called KickAss Forever Monthly and the very first episode we spoke about Metallica & 72 Seasons!

The band is also about to embark on their no repeat weekend tour —

Thanks for checking out my review and I hope you all enjoy this album as much as I did!!!

ALL the links you need for METALLICA and getting 72 SEASONS are here —> Link Tree for Metallica