Building on the anticipation around their forthcoming 11th album, 72 Seasons, Metallica have released the seven-and-a-half-minute title track, along with a new video.
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Written by Metallica’s James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Lars Ulrich, “72 Seasons” opens the band’s epic 12-track, 77-minute album, and follows recent releases “If Darkness Had A Son,” “Screaming Suicide” and “Lux Æterna.”
“’72 seasons—the first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves,” said Hetfield of the track in a previous statement. “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.”
Hetfield continued, “Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
Produced by Hetfield and Ulrich, along with Greg Fidelman (Black Sabbath, Red Hot Chili Peppers), 72 Seasons will be released on Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings and is the band’s first album since Hardwired…To Self-Destruct in 2016.
The band is also set to kick off their M72 World Tour on April 27, 2023, which will run through Sept. 29, 2024, and have Metallica playing two nights in every city with supporting artists, including Five Finger Death Punch, Mammoth WVH, Greta Van Fleet, and more.
The tour will feature an in-the-round stage design bringing the band to center stage, in addition to an I Disappear full-tour pass and discounted tickets for fans under 16 years of age.
A portion of the proceeds from each ticket sold on the M72 tour will benefit the band’s All Within My Hands (AWMH) foundation. Founded in 2017, AWMH has already provided $5.9 million in grants for career and technical education programs in the U.S., more than $3.2 million to disaster relief efforts worldwide, and more than $2.5 million to help combat hunger.
To keep up with the demand for their vinyl, Metallica recently purchased Furnace Record Pressing. The Alexandria, Virginia-based plant has worked with the band since 2008 and has produced more than five million Metallica vinyl records since 2014, including a deluxe box set reissues of Kill ‘Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, …And Justice For All, Metallica (The Black Album) and S&M2.
Moving ahead, the plant will be used to keep up with the demand for Metallica’s back catalog on vinyl, in addition to the release of 72 Seasons.
Photo by Tim Saccenti / Nasty Little Man
