Metallica
72 Seasons

An apparently fire-damaged cradle with a brutal opening. A broken guitar, dark glasses, a dagger, a tricycle, and an incinerated teddy bear. And all around, blinding light.

Seventy-two seasons have passed, and adulthood has arrived. This is what the Four Horsemen want to tell us with the cover of their latest highly anticipated album.

Seven years have passed since “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct” and thirty-two since that “Black Album” that created the well-known split in the fanbase of the four thrash metal legends from San Francisco.

Since that summer of 1991, everything has happened, and after forty-two springs, we hear about maturity and total awareness. With significant delay and in an incredible way, I would say, given that Metallica has long since surpassed artistic maturation and full consecration to the audience of the globe.

“72 Seasons” is both a curse and a delight. It is what we needed and partly the confirmation of something we already knew. It is a forceful, honest, and, at times, devastating album, in which there is a bit of boredom and a tap on the emergency brake. But overall, it is the confirmation of undeniable talent and an ability to light the fuse without needing to understand how to do it. And it's time to bring up the most clichéd saying, admitting that James, Lars, Kirk, and Rob “are like fine wine”, and time makes them even more appealing to the palate, or rather to the ear, in this specific case. James' vocals have responded well to rehabilitation, scratch and rip, never losing rhythm in each episode. And we are talking about episodes far from short, peaking with the ungrammatical but exquisite “Inamorata”, a closing track of more than eleven minutes. Lars leaves criticisms behind and even receives compliments from Thomas Lang, not just anyone. Kirk's solos seem to tell us that his pick doesn't only flow well across the “Master of Puppets” score, and Mr. Trujillo, besides confirming (if there was still any need) how appropriate it was to choose him exactly twenty years ago, debuts his voice by making his way into the choruses.

The progenitor of the most significant episodes is, needless to say, "Lux Æterna", the first single unexpectedly released last November. Following, among the beautiful and damned, are “Screaming Suicide” (which, without being "blasphemous," winks at “Kill ‘Em All"), “Shadows Fall”, and not least, the title track “72 Seasons”. “If Darkness Had a Son” deserves a separate mention, as it undergoes love and hate; though tempting at first listen, overall, and after several tries, it proves to be somewhat bland. What dulls the overall work is the excessive loop in tracks like “You Must Burn!”, dragged and generally end unto itself, as well as in “Crown of Barbed Wire”, “Sleepwalk My Life Away”, and “Chasing Light”, mid-tempo pieces somewhat drawn out and at times boring. While the first two could easily be done without, the remaining ones first strike for Trujillo's bass intro and then for the double solo of the acclaimed duo Hetfield/Hammett. “Room of Mirrors” and “Too Far Gone?” are power and technique, bringing back the mind to old times, between melodic variations and intoxicating riffs.

The lyrics, also very valuable, talk about rebirth and growth, with a nod to a past that has contributed to the formation of talent and character. Significant are the words of James Hetfield, which best describe the message conveyed through the twelve tracks in almost eighty minutes of music:

The first 18 years of our life that form our true or false self. The concept that we were told of "who we are" by our parents. A possible box around what kind of personality we are. I think the most interesting part of this is the ongoing study of those core beliefs and how they affect our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is re-enactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or freed from those ties we carry.

The “new” Metallica of the year domini 2023 is this. They are neither better nor worse than those from the early Eighties, they are simply different. More mature and sophisticated or more repetitive and clichéd. Make your choice.

You can love them or hate them, but the fact remains that this latest work, despite some inevitable flaws, is still a really well-crafted and enjoyable album. And the judgment improves further if one doesn't overthink and enjoys the music in its true essence.

Graduated with good marks.