METALLICA 72 Seasons | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Blackened Recordings on April 14th, 2023

Quick Background

Obviously there's no introduction needed. Metallica ranks as one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, having sold more than 125 million albums worldwide as of 2018. The black album, from 1991 to this day still pops up on most sold albums list, say what? Yeah, it's just crazy. Despite being one of the first bands I fell in love with when I was a teenager, I haven't cared for anything they did after And Justice. Then Hardwire came and I was open to that, and it's an OK album. I even have it in vinyl. Now almost 7 years later let's check the super yellow follow up 72 Seasons.

72 Seasons

I came to this album as I did in 2016, with an open mind. The very first single was promising but also deceiving. I reviewed it on the channel, it is a short energetic song mixing Kill em All era with NWOBHM vibes. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Now the album came, and every of the other 11 songs are much longer than that. There's a lot of fat on this album, and no time was spent trying to trim it down. 77 minutes and 12 songs is just too much. Moreover, it's not that the songs needed to be all that long. No, they drag and mostly extend their welcome. "Too Far Gone?" with 4:30 is one pleasant exception. Nice Heavy Metal, notice not thrash, song with cool guitar harmonies and catchy groove and chorus. And even the closer "Inamorata" with its whopping 11 minutes and a Sabbath-like sound is an ok song and not the album's biggest problem. At least here they tried something different and explored new (heavy) avenues.  The problem are most of the other songs being around the 6, 7 minutes. Those could and should've been shorter. And it's not only the length but the fact that they are mostly mid-tempo with a lot of repetition and ideas being recycled. It all sounds familiar and too much the same.

For example, "Crown of Barbed Wire" sounds exactly like Glenn Huges song "The Liar" and from the same Live album "Room of Mirrors" reminds me of Deep Purple's "Stormbringer". Just exemples, because many parts resemble something out of And Justice or the black album (there's a "Enter Sandman" part 2 with " ").

With that out of the way,  there are some good moments, the first 4 tracks, for example, are fun with nice grooves, some cool ideas and catchy vocal lines. James is singing really well on this album. The singles "Lux Æterna"  and "If Darkness Had a Son" are also some of the highlights. During many songs, we hear some moments of cool bass lines that we can actually hear it, so that's cool. The drumming is not too bad, we know what to expect. And the production despite being too loud and pristine, at least the mix is OK. The guitar tones are also not that impressive. The artwork is horrible and the guitar solos substandard specially because we know what Kirk can accomplish. The 80's albums were hugely influential for me and some of those solos are iconic. But this...I won't even go there. It's mostly bad. 

The Picky Guy

"You Must Burn!", "Crown of Barbed Wire", "Chasing Light" didn't have to be in this album, they add no value or anything interesting.

Wrap Up Opinion 

I realize that this may sound too negative, but I actually see some value on this album and I still consider it a good 79/100 album. But, if 72 Seasons would be released by any other band, it would get no attention at all and nobody would care. But it's Metallica, so we try. I guess I mostly hoped that without any pressure from timelines or financially that those guys could use the potential they have to create something cool, heavy and sharp. We saw some light of it, pun indented, with "Lux Æterna". But it just feels that they don't care, the album is just an excuse to tour and sell new merch and on the bright side it does add some cool moments to the set list. That's just my opinion, and when it comes to Metallica everyone has one from love to hate and anything in between. So it's fine for me either way. Have fun with it or go check the new Overkill if you are on the hate it side. 

SCORE: 79/100

Genre: Heavy/Thrash Metal

Released by Blackened Recordings on April 14th, 2023

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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