Music Review: 72 Seasons by Metallica
By no means a bad album, it nevertheless “fails to ignite the heart.”
Metallica's 72 Seasons is their 11th studio album and continues the band’s recent trend of getting back to their roots started by 2008’s Death Magnetic.
The 90s and 2000s were a period of experimentation for the band. The results were mixed but generally good. They dominated the charts in the 90s, and S&M (1999) is the greatest work they ever produced. St. Anger (2003) was a decided step backwards with its tinny drums and complete lack of guitar solos. But risk is part of the creative process. As Sam Walker-Smart writes in Clash magazine, “We may laugh when they fall, but at least they’re always trying.”
72 Seasons (along with their previous two albums) brings back that classic Metallica sound. “Lux Aeterna,” is a homage to the band Diamond Head, a major influence on the boys in black, according to the Guardian. The lyric “Full speed or nothing” is an allusion to “Motorbreath,” and has become my life’s motto.
Another allusion appearing in “Room of Mirrors” is the lyric “broken, beat and scarred,” which refers to a Death Magnetic song.
The 11 minute long “Inamorata” is reminiscent of several classics.
Guitarist Kirk Hammet has some excellent, old-school solos. The aforementioned “Inamorata” and “You Must Burn!” are good examples.
The title track really gets the adrenaline pumping. This is a particularly exciting couplet:
Staring into black lights
Permanently midnight
Even so, nothing has quite captured the magic of Metallica’s first four albums. Kill ‘Em All (1983) is - so to speak - a proof of concept: they were doing something right. Ride the Lighting (‘84) is an improvement on that. Master of Puppets (‘86) is a masterpiece while …And Justice for All (‘88) somehow manages to top it.
Perhaps Metallica doesn’t need to recapture that magic. We already have those masterpieces. They will always be with us.
The real trouble with 72 Seasons is, as Walker-Smart writes, it “fails to ignite the heart.” By no means a bad album, it does not inspire a headbanging, devil horns-waving good time. On the contrary, one might catch himself scrolling through his phone while listening - something a musician should never let happen! “Sleepwalk My Life Away,” for example, is a song I really wanted to like given its thick bass intro, but its body doesn’t do it for me.
The more I listen to 72 Seasons the more it grows on me. That’s something, but an album needs to grab the audience by the lapels and demand their attention. This one fails to do that. Moreover, what it does well was done better by 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct - another back-to-their-roots album.
In conclusion, it’s good but not great. Listen to it if you care to, but your time is better spent on S&M1 or 2, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct or any of their classics.
