Music / 72 Seasons

Thrive upon, feeding on, 72 seasons gone.

72 Seasons is the eleventh album by Metallica, released on April 14, 2023. The band started jamming out song ideas in 2019 and spent over a year and a half recording from 2021-22. According to James Hetfield, the album title refers to "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."

The title track won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.

Track list:

1. "72 Seasons" (7:39)
2. "Shadows Follow (6:12)
3. "Screaming Suicide" (5:30)
4. "Sleepwalk My Life Away" (6:56)
5. "You Must Burn!" (7:03)
6. "Lux Æterna" (3:22)
7. "Crown of Barbed Wire" (5:49)
8. "Chasing Light" (6:45)
9. "If Darkness Had a Son" (6:36)
10. "Too Far Gone?" (4:34)
11. "Room or Mirrors" (5:34)
12. "Inamorata" (11:10)

Principal members:

• James Hetfield - Lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Lars Ulrich - Drums
• Kirk Hammett - Lead guitar
• Robert Trujillo - Bass, backing vocals on "You Must Burn!"

Full tropes or nothing:

• Album Closure: "Inamorata" ends with some Studio Chatter that starts with "Thank you, good night".
• Despair Event Horizon: Defied in the last chorus of "Too Far Gone?"
  "Too far gone
  Never too far gone
  I'm never too far gone to save
  I can make it through the day"
• Epic Instrumental Opener: The opening title track takes a little over a minute and a half for the vocals to enter.
• Epic Rocking: Present as usual for Metallica, with special mention going to "Inamorata" (11:10), the longest original song Metallica has done.
• The Insomniac: "Screaming Suicide"
  "Terrified, sleepless nights
  Caught in spotlight dead to rights"
• Longest Song Goes Last: The album ends with "Inamorata" (11:10), the longest original song Metallica has done.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "Chasing Light" begins with an aggressive "There's no light" before the instruments come in.
• Mood Whiplash: The "Nice!" at the end of the otherwise appropriately titled "Screaming Suicide".
• Sleepwalking: "Sleepwalk My Life Away" is written in the perspective of a sleepwalker who knows he has no consciousness when he does it.
• Studio Chatter: Recordings of Lars and others appear at the ends of "Screaming Suicide", "Sleepwalk My Life Away", and "Inamorata".
• Subdued Section: "Inamorata" has a quieter, bass and cymbal-driven segment near the middle after the guitar solo, with vocals and a single clean guitar before a drum transition leads back to the main riff with the distorted guitars returning.
• Suicide is Shameful: "Screaming Suicide" addresses the taboo of talk of suicide.
  "Don't ever speak my name
  Remember you're to blame"
• Textless Album Cover: Almost. The only text is the "M" from the Metallica logo.
• Very Special Episode: "Screaming Suicide" deals with the taboo of the word "suicide". James even invoked You Are Not Alone in his statement about the song.

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