Bay area-hailing Metal legends Metallica have confirmed the title and release date of their forthcoming 12th studio album:72 Seasons which drops on 14th April2023 via the band’s own Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman alongside Metallica frontman James Hetfield and founder Lars Ulrich, and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track 72 Seasons is Metallica’s first full length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.
Metallica (Tim Saccenti)
72 Seasons is trailed today by first single Lux Æterna, a short, sharp blast that distills 40 years of Metallica into three and a half minutes.
Check out the Tim Saccenti-directed video below:
Speaking on the concept of the album title, James Hetfield says: “72 seasons. 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. 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. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
Metallica @ Twickenham
The band have also announced today that every Metallica show booked through 2023 and 2024: Presented worldwide by Liquid Death and Blackened American Whiskey (in North America only) and promoted by Live Nation, Metallica’s M72 world tour will see the band playing two nights in every city it visits—with each No Repeat Weekend featuring two completely different setlists and support lineups. The M72 tour will feature a bold new in-the-round stage design that relocates the famed Metallica Snake Pit to centre stage, as well as the I Disappear full-tour pass and the debut of discounted tickets for fans under 16 years of age.
A portion of proceeds from every ticket sold will go to the band’s All Within My Hands foundation. Founded in 2017, AWMH’s efforts to assist and enrich the lives of members of the communities who have supported the band have raised nearly $13 million – providing $5.9 million in grants to career and technical education programs in the US, over $2.5 million to combat food insecurity, and more than $3.2 million to disaster relief efforts worldwide.
The tour kicks off in Amsterdam on 27th April 2023, covers four dates in Paris and Hamburg during May, Gothenburg in June before hitting stadiums across North America.
Metallica (Tim Saccenti)
Metallica had already announced two shows featuring two different sets as part of the 2023 Download Festival at Leicestershire’s Donnington Park on the 8th and 10th June 2023.
Read what went down when Metallica took over Twickenham the last time they visited the U.K. Metallica Are Hardwired Into Twickenham
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