Metallica: 72 Seasons album review — thrash-metallers bare their souls

Over the past 40 years, American hard rockers Metallica have coursed through landmark anthems, murky descents and experimental realms. They’ve earned their rep as thrash-metal pioneers and forged a status that feels rather greater than “stadium-sized”, spanning massive tour productions and branded merch (including iconic T-shirts, a video game and whiskey). Metallica’s fame hasn’t removed the band from their roots; their records have often referenced personal events and influences, and on 11th studio album 72 Seasons these feel amplified on a grand scale.

Metallica co-founder — and unmistakably intense vocalist/rhythm guitarist — James Hetfield has unpacked this latest LP title on the band’s website: “The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves . . . Much of our adult experience is re-enactment or reaction to these childhood experiences.” The cover art depicts charred remnants of infancy and youth, and the bluntness of such imagery contrasts with the music’s exhilarating finesse; the full-throttle blast of the opening title track sets the album’s tone with its juggernaut riffs and tempo switches, savagely snappy lyrics (“Wrath of man!”) and heady, hard-hitting melodies.

This obviously isn’t the first time that Metallica have displayed their battle scars, but there is something intriguing about the band baring their souls as they hit their sixties. Hetfield remains a primary songwriter and his reported real-life challenges (including a return to rehab and recent divorce) lend an edge to the themes of anguish and bravado on the blues-laced outbursts of “Crown of Barbed Wire” and the urgent confessionals of “Chasing Light”; at the same time, he delivers raw lyrics with impressive vigour.

Rather than mellowing with age, Metallica have fine-tuned their forcefulness and form a line-up that sounds thrillingly cohesive. Every track here showcases their musical prowess, including co-founding drummer Lars Ulrich’s meticulous breakneck beats, Rob Trujillo’s hefty bass grooves and Kirk Hammett’s fiercely eloquent guitar solos.

There is little let-up in thrashy pace throughout, and nothing resembling a ballad, but there are plenty of pleasing details — including the rollicking “full speed or nothing” refrain on “Lux Æterna”, which alludes to lyrics from Metallica’s 1983 debut LP, Kill ’Em All. While 72 Seasons is released as a single volume, most of its tracks are expansive, allowing the instrumentals to surge and swagger; the 11-minute finale “Inamorata” entwines elements of prog and Black Sabbath in its sprawling serenade (“Misery . . . she loves me/But I love her more”). Crucially, it never runs out of steam, and the closing clips of studio chat lighten the heavy mood. Metallica sound defiantly in their prime.

★★★★☆

‘72 Seasons’ is released by Blackened Recordings