Here's what Hetfield had to say about the album title:

“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.”

Song rips btw. Best they've sounded in a long, long time.

Wtf this came out of nowhere?

Sounds pretty old school. Not mind-blowing but pretty fun

Wtf this came out of nowhere?[2]

Hardwired put me to sleep and this sounds like more of the same

Pretty fun song

For new millennium Met, not bad.

good 80s worship, this sounds like kill em all era 'tallica actually.

Very much a "Kill 'Em All" riff. Cool song. Nothing too special.

Very boring song tbh

This was much better than I was expecting. Obviously not up to the standards of their 80's material but this is still extremely solid.

I already know 12 songs is too many

midtallica

oh no... that's not the album cover, is it?

Seems like nearly 12 tracks too many.
But they can make millions off putting out just about anything so why not...

Extremely interesting concept, let’s see if the music will rise to the occasion.

Cim gets it

Pretty cool. Kirk’s solo was indeed a Kirk solo.

That album artwork with the crib is horrific. Everyone saying this sounds like Kill 'Em All and I just hear Load

God, this drumming is horrendous lol Song isn't bad despite some clear age in James' voice and Lars' horrendous drumming. He seriously sounds like a drum machine in the worst way

Godflesh's drummer > Lars

I've listened to it

It was fine

I have no desire to ever put it on again

"He seriously sounds like a drum machine in the worst way"

I'm convinced that's not actually Lars playing at all

This song is fine, but I do appreciate it. I like the old-school NWOBHM vibes, this is something you'd hear on Garage Inc. It's nothing spectacular but I dig it more than 90% of the clunkers on Hardwired.

“This song is fine”

[2]

I wouldn’t complain if I heard it at the bowling alley, but I probably won’t listen again

Meh af

Hardwired has much better songs than this

Pretty decent actually. Regardless Its just cool to have a new metallica track to jam. I'm not complaining that its "not as good as the 80s material" like a bunch of these dudes lol. Cool track

I think metallica have lowered the bar so much over the years that people hear this and think it's good by comparison lol. It's ok though. Not terrible but not great

I mean it's a perfectly fun enjoyable 3/5 Metallica song. Around the same quality as the last 2 albums. Theres nothing to complain about just be happy Metallica put out a new song that isnt bad and are still having a good time jamming and making new music. I'd rather jam this than the last few megadeth

This song is fine (3)

Sounds very Garage Inc like. I hope its gonna be a varied album with some highlights, I mean that's the most and best I can expect from these guys.

Metallica's albums until Death Magnetic each had quite distinct production from each other. Since then though, all their music has been mixed the exact same. As funny as it is for a Metallica fan to be saying it, it's time for them to shake up their sound a bit.

And make lulu/load again ?? lol. That's what happens when they shake up their sound. I'd rather hear them continue on with the sound of the recent albums (and who knows they very well could have some surprises on the album) than make another load

Load is significantly better than Lulu tho, and better than this lol

i would love another load honestly (yes homo)

Load is decent better than lulu and st anger.. and reload thats about it tho I cant say its better than the last 2 albums even tho those were just decent as well

Would name it ReReLoad

song is alright i guess... exactly what I expected minus the kill em all style riffs

not sure i'm a fan of how processed james' voice sounds at points

also i did not think they could come up with album art worse than hardwired but here we are

Definitely more energetic than they've been this century but nothing I think is super interesting or memorable.

At this point I'm happy that the Metallica guys can write music they enjoy and hope they keep playing as long as they want but I've checked out pretty hard on caring about anything they do.

This does sound exactly just like hardwired tho production wise 🤣

Damn, when did Lars suddenly remember to drum so well again? But yeah, a little poppy sounding but this has me pumped.

yeah this is three albums in a row now with identical sounding (not good) production idk how they listen to these recordings and think its good.

shit even lulu had the exact same production lol

Yeah it's a bit digital and clean sounding overall. sounds like some new school greta van fleet or something (production wise). Needs more punch... needs something.

Song is mediocre af but refreshingly short, hoping for an album under 45 minutes

Its 77 mins. Same runtime as the last one

"Damn, when did Lars suddenly remember to drum so well again? But yeah, a little poppy sounding but this has me pumped"

More like the guy editing the drums knows what hes doing lol

I dunno what´s worse. The hamfisted drumming (does this make sense in English?) or the cover artwork.
Solo and vocals are pretty cool though.

-production is expectedly thin
-lars be larsin but he's larsed harder
-those high notes on the hook r sus do it live & then we'll talk
-still kind of a sucker for a good Hetfield riff
-that lead going into the second verse is money

S'cool I guess

A fun enjoyable quick 3/5 track I'll take it. Seeing as the album is 77 mins long at 12 tracks you best believe their will be alot or complex longer cuts. For better or worse

80s Metallica: The album cover should be metal. Like a bloody hammer or an evil floating electric chair. So thrash. How about graves or lady justice being smashed, that's brutal.

Metallica now: Hey how about a baby crib, cuz like, we're prisoners of childhood breaking free of those bondages we carry? That's pretty deep right guys? Metal!

“77 mins long at 12 tracks”

in more civilized times this would be considered an act of terrorism.

Song actually goes pretty hard. James sounded the best he has in awhile, though I'm not sure if he can do it live. He did sound good on S&M2, though, so maybe?
Anyway, Lars sounds ass (as usual), but hey, it's just a feature at this point.

Solid 7/10, better than anything from Death Magnetic and most of Hardwired.

death magnetic has some kick ass moments idk where all the hate comes from

Metallica are still enjoyable. Its not the first 5 albums great but its still one of the goat metal bands. They have their moments nowdays and have some highlights. Honesty dont deserve some of the hate they get from online dweebs lol. Who knows the album could be surprising. It's a bunch of 50+ year old dudes having fun and jamming and doing what they love to do later in life why hate ???

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Honestly Lars just likes his drums to sound like absolute shit - I don’t know why every single crash cymbal has to sound like this super tightly wound china but Jesus Christ it’s a bad choice when you include the fact that he insists on choking 50% of the crash hits. On the plus side the snare sound doesn’t make me want to kill myself and he found the other bass drum pedal on his kit.

Great track tbh

Sounds like kill em all meets reload to me.
Not bad, it sounds like they're just having fun here and not thinking too hard about their output.

new song is boring as hell.

also sounds like the drums are midi?

Nah it's just Lars being Lars

My favorite band of all time after being hooked in 1991. Always been obsessed with Metallica. Hadn't heard about a new album so this a treat.
The song is a continuation from Hardwired and p good after hearing it twice. The main thing that I thought was geez they're going for it at the age of 60 or thereabouts. The vocals from James are not easy and Lar's drumming isn't easy either. Cool solo Kirk.

hey anybody else think this is kind of a “kill ‘em all” type vibe?

Cool track yeah. The boys are still jamming 40 years later having fun and still the most iconic metal band of all time. Regardless of what the some of the nerds here say about the drums lol

it's more pseudo-punky metal than straight Kill em All-throwback imo, but it's pretty decent regardless. I hope the rest of the album is at least kind of like this, it'd be great to get a real Punktallica album tho.

solid. has more energy to it than anything they’ve done in idk how long

biggest hope for this album cycle is some dank yellow-on-black/black-on-yellow merch tbh

Lars sounds so horrible here, sounds like a really bad drum machine. Otherwise it's fine but holy fuck those drums are awful.

So are we all in agreement that this song is definitely about going to a Metallica show

Wow... This is Speed Metal. 😮

Decent song, but not overly exciting

Damn it made me blast 'violence and force'. What an album!

Song was pretty middle of the road but wasnt horrid.

Incredibly passionless and dull in my opinion.

Are we finally just admitting it that Metallica has been carried by Hetfield's wrist for 40 years? One boy discovering wanking in his teens is responsible for this bloated multi-million behemoth.

The art can definitely be worse. See: their last album.

"It's another 77 minute album. There is going to be fatigue and filler, for sure."

Yeah, they have absolutely zero ability to self-edit or see what stuff of theirs works and what doesn't--to utter gobsmacking, perplexing levels. Hoping the good/fantastic stuff makes the inevitable slog worth it.

Very decent, but unspectacular lead single.

Judging by those song titles...

*yawns*

You Must Burn! Sounds like a great ballad if you ask me

Hopefully getting tickets on Friday, anyone else going to see them?

If you glanced the song titles you could mistake this for a blackened doom album
This song was unbelievably boring though

> If you glanced the song titles you could mistake this for a blackened doom album
This, lol. [2]

wait that part at 2:08 is literally the riff before the solo in hit the lights lol

Here's to hoping they're gonna prune some of the track lengths this time. I'm tired of 8-minute Metallica songs.

no invisible kid no care

^ Lol. And side-note: great username.

It's truly a event to sit back and watch the internet metal community whenever Metallica drop a new album every 7 or so years. You got all the massive fanboys saying it's a masterpiece, all the anti Metallica saying it's the worst thing ever, and all the fans saying it's good "BuT nOT As GoOD as tHE firST 5 aLbumS" lol. Its the same shit everytime. And it's always a blast to watch

LOL

terrible sounding drums, James sounds pretty sub-par compared to Hardwired. great solo, fun song, unfortunately can't get into it because of the ass production

The drums are just way too loud in the mix. Like I'm pretty sure they're louder than the vocals at times.

Sounds pretty old school. Not mind-blowing but pretty fun [2]

Sounds alright. Will check out new album. Kick drum is way too loud I agree as someone above me mentioned. The whole mix sounds a bit over produce, especially the vocals but it’s whatever.

It's been clear for many years, and will be the case until hear death of the universe, that Lars's thumpy-booms will ALWAYS be forefront in the mix because his ego will allow nothing else.

It's just part of the package. Can't and wouldn't expect anything else.

Looks like a Twenty One Pilots album cover.
New song is good though

Old School? You mean like a meh cover band attempting 80s Metallica from 2022? I think the concept is unoriginal and honestly it sounds boring. I guess Lulu is the reason why Alcoholica no longer takes risks or tries to sound “different.” I just hear stale bread and James is starting to sound like Dave Mustaine.

I'm a little surprised at the love for the solo here, seems like kind of a mess of kirk-isms with barely any substantive interplay with the underlying riff

Overall relistens are not being very kind to this but also I've had it stuck in my head literally all day so clearly a nonzero amount of juice here

"The juice" is hetfields riffs. That's basically the only saving grace of the band nowdays. The other members have their moments but hetfield is one of the riff masters and still writes killer. Everything else?? The production,kirk,lars,cant hear rob, james weird clean vocals... all mediocre

Still nothing they've done since the black album is as good as anything on the black album.
But, I'm not disappointed with this. It's fine for 2022-3 Metallica

Midtallica, safe as it gets, it's not like i was expecting anything tho

It must be exhausting pretending that you dont like metallica lol

Even when metallica is bad, it's still fun

To be fair Hetfield rhymes a little too much on this track lol

what is going on with that kick drum lmao

"It's another 77 minute album. There is going to be fatigue and filler, for sure."
77 minutes oh god why

"what is going on with that kick drum lmao"

triggers a ride bell lol

This came out of nowhere and what a surprise! I'm digging the Kill em All era riff, although the song has that repetition that sounds like a lack of creativity from them.

Also bought my ticket for Paris, two shows and no repetition, this is going to be sick!

Actually kind of... based?

Wasn't expecting it.

Drums are a bit off and the solo was weak, but they're heading in the right direction and its only the first single.

Yea, Kirks Solos continue to disappoint. A shame, because they could be a high point of the songs. He used to do great soloing

Rasta how did you already buy a pre-sale ticket?

There is absolutely, no way, in all hell, that lars is actually playing those triplet fills with the kick drums. 0 fucking chance. They have gone full drum machine to compensate his crappy drumming. Bet they never play this live.

Dungeon I have no idea but my little bro told me he was ready for the pre-sale today at 11AM French time, and he got two tickets for the both of us, so I guess it's either through Fnac, Stade de France directly or he bought the Metallica fan club thing which I highly doubt...

dang, that's awesome, I'm trying to figure out whether to go Texas, California, or Washington to see them in the US cause they aren't playing anywhere near me.

"There is absolutely, no way, in all hell, that lars is actually playing those triplet fills with the kick drums. 0 fucking chance. They have gone full drum machine to compensate his crappy drumming. Bet they never play this live."

Kick drums are damn near always triggered/sampled for metal bands in the studio. You can pretty much edit kick drum hits as if it were a drum machine. Also, this song is ridiculously easy. I'm sure even lars can, more or less, play it just fine

Pat Barry
7 hours ago
This is a perfect return from their previous album. . . In your face and full of raw energy with an old school speed metal vibe. What's not to love? This song captures their essence as the amazing band they have always been and reminds us they are still here to kick ass and do it better than most. Long live Metallica.

Besides the drum gripes James' voice ruins this as well.

If this wasn't Metallica nobody would give a f**k about a song this mediocre. I do appreciate the effort they put in at their age though.

Solid good tune, nothing great here but I'm officially pumped to hear the new album. I'm bummed Architects isn't going to be opening for them at the Seattle shows. I really want to make it to one of those gigs.

I have a feeling that the vast majority of people who think Lars' drumming is bad have no actual idea what they're talking about and are saying stuff just because it's a thing on the internet. Lars is super effective in his style of drumming, he's not a fucking jazz or prog drummer, but he gets the job done 95% of the time with good taste and has an instantly recognizable style, which is something you can't say about most of the drummers that you think are good. Not saying he's my favorite or that I even enjoy his style, but man calling him bad is just uneducated imo

@StormChaser: True. Lars being a bad drummer has kind of become a running gag that is kept alive by people just repeating it and not by actual bad drumming from Lars.

Maybe he just sucks 🤔

I recommend live footage
https://youtu.be/gjbAKqREg9g
Lars was serviceable for the studio I guess. It's hilarious how many amazing drummers can't make a living, but fucking Lars is a millionaire making money by touring the world playing drums

"It's hilarious how many amazing drummers can't make a living, but fucking Lars is a millionaire making money by touring the world playing drums"

Yes, well... technically more accomplished drummers weren't in, nor were founding members of Metallica.

Buy a record... get merch... see them live... he gets money. Enough people repeat that process hundreds of millions of times, he unsurpisingly becomes a millionaire and this facilitates him touring the world playing drums.

It not that you can't explain this situation, it's that the situation is hilarious
Also it's not about other drummers being technically more advanced or anything, it's about Lars fucking up way too often. Big difference. I guess, Lars doesn't even work as a time keeper for the band

James has that covered

Got my 2 day tickets for Texas, baby! yee haw. Gonna bring my St. Anger snare to play along with Lars.

"James has that covered"
Isn't it telling that the rhythn guitarist has to do the job?

yee haw. Gonna bring my St. Anger snare to play along with Lars.

Lol

Guys, we thrashing

Subpar below average thrashing.

James clean vocals not good
Cant hear Rob on bass
Production way over polished/clean doesnt sound good
Kirk solo average
Lars did okay
Guitar tone kinda ass

............. its barely passable

Have we ever really been able to hear bass tho? It's an average thrasher from a band that shouldn't make new music.

Yeah I mean the band isnt terrible nowdays honestly theres worse bands. And I'm sure there will be a few good tracks on the album. James will always bring the riffs but all in all its just not the greatest material.

James' voice sounds good to me.

Yeah idk post-vocal training Hetfield has some pretty cheesy moments but I'd rather he prioritize his own health over sounding as much like his 80s self as possible