Metallica announce new album 72 Seasons and share video for first single Lux Æterna

Metallica have announced their 12th album, 72 Seasons, is due to arrive on April 14, 2023, but you can already check out the video for their first single Lux Æterna.

The 12-track album has once again been produced by Greg Fidelman (who also worked on 2016’s Hardwired… To Self Destruct), with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich also manning the desk.

Hetfield has said that the band chose the title as a reference to the idea that our world view is fixed by the age of 18. The theme is also reflected in the cover artwork [below] – which we’re pleased to note features an electric guitar, albeit one that is blackened and shattered...

“72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves,” writes Hetfield. 

“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.”

The announcement has been accompanied by excoriating first single Lux Æterna – a nailed-on thrasher that brings to mind Motörhead’s relentless commitment to pace and volume. To our ears there’s also, dare we say it, a touch of The Offspring in its melody and pedal-to-the-metal punk pacing. 

However, the highlight for Guitar World comes from Kirk Hammett, who treats us to a particularly off-the-wall solo, complete with some frantic pogo-ing slides. 

The accompanying video falls very much in the Muse-esque ‘laser hurricane’ genre and has been shot by Tim Saccenti, who’s previously worked with Run The Jewels, Depeche Mode and Pharrell Williams. 

In addition to the new album release and single, Metallica have also announced a world tour for 2023, which begins in April and will take in dates across the US and Europe, plus a three night residency in Mexico City. 

Supports for the dates will (variously) include Pantera, Mammoth WVH, Architects, Greta Van Fleet, Volbeat and Five Finger Death Punch.

72 Seasons tracklist

1. 72 Seasons
2. Shadows Follow
3. Screaming Suicide
4. Sleepwalk My Life Away
5. You Must Burn!
6. Lux Æterna
7. Crown of Barbed Wire
8. Chasing Light
9. If Darkness Had a Son
10. Too Far Gone?
11. Room of Mirrors
12. Inamorata

Metallica’s new album 72 Seasons is released April 14, 2023. For pre-orders and tour tickets, head to Metallica’s official site.