I used to worry about how to reconcile the “objective” writer with the passionate fan when it came to my favorite artists. I’ve made no secret of my love for Metallica and how they were the band who brought me into extreme metal. I wrote a little about it for Nine Circles almost seven years ago, and here we are seven years later with 72 Seasons, their newest release. And listening to it for the past seven months (man, there are a lot of sevens in this thing, huh?), my heart and mind have run the gamut concerning my feelings for the music: sheer excitement for the singles; the joy of the first complete listen; disappointment upon hearing (and certainly reading) the inevitable cracks in the facade; the quiet resignation as other albums were released and the metal social media made their jokes and moved on. But now that we’re nearing the end of 2023 and everyone and their brother are making EOY lists (mine come out starting the second week of December) I wanted to really sit down and ignore everyone else, and just listen and see what I heard.

Surprise: I really, really like 72 Seasons, warts and all.

I think everyone was excited when “Lux Æterna” was released as the first single. A fast, ripping track in the vein of some of the Garage Days covers from their past, with that heavy punk influence also smeared across “Hardwired” from 2016’s Hardwired…To Self Destruct. I was equally taken with “Screaming Suicide” – particularly the guitar riff in the pre-chorus and. “If Darkness Had a Son” has that snapping snare intro with the chugging string attack, and a chorus I love to sing along to – not to mention the wicked riff right before Hammett goes off into a vicious solo. But it was the seven (there is it again) and a half minute opening title track that really primed me to feel everything James, Lars, Kirk and Robert were putting out. Killer intro, bass prominent, straight ahead riffing and Hatfield’s voice sounding like a lion.

Four singles, all songs I loved. When 72 Seasons was finally released I devoured it…and immediately started trying to ignore not only everything the internet was saying, but what I was hearing as well. The fact that Lars seems to only work within one kind of drum beat, and that does beat does not include drum fills. The second half drag. The need for a little self editing. You can’t deny these things, and though I supposed you can argue they’re more feature than bug for Metallica at this point, they definitely keep it from being the utter smash the album could be. I kept listening for about a month, and then life, and more music, got in the way and I moved onto other things.

When the call to start getting end of year posts ready for Nine Circles, I went through the list of all the albums I listened to this year and threw a quick list together. Usually how it works is I do a Top 25, 15 Honorable Mentions, and then a post of 9 albums that should have been on my list but for whatever reasons weren’t. I did a quick review and hey: no Metallica. That couldn’t be right, so I decided I needed another listen. But a careful listen, and make it as good as I can. So I angled my speakers, got out my Met Club Smoky Black vinyl edition, positioned myself at the head of that 60° listening triangle and dropped the needle.

A couple things readily became apparent on this listen. First of all, the production is AMAZING. This is the third time the band has worked with Greg Fidelman, and it might be the best sounding of the post- St. Anger output ( an album I for the most part enjoy, weird production choices and lack of solos notwithstanding). The guitars have a looser, less distorted tone and rather than lessen the heaviness, gives them a rough menace that complements the more swagger, blues driven riffing the songs aim for. The low-end frequencies are more present than ever, letting Trujillo’s playing come through in a way missing on previous albums. It’s a strong mix, with plenty of space (especially the vinyl, which feels like a beast alive) to let the drums – triggered or otherwise – snap and crackle in the air.

As for the songs? It’s the first time in a while I’m not drifting off during the second half of the album. “Crown of Barbed Wire” is a fantastic track, giving off faint Alice in Chains vibes mixed with the best the Load and Reload albums had to offer. And “Chasing Light” has fast become a go-to rager for me. I love the way the riffs switch up, different ideas stitched together Frankenstein-style. Hetfield sounds fantastic, his screams almost to the point of fraying. And Hammett is still making up for an album of no solos and another albums where all his ideas were lost on an iPhone; his solos are uniformly excellent, really leaning into the wah pedal and putting more feel into every lead.

Nothing leans too far into past glories (something I initially loved about Death Magnetic but soon grew tired of) and thank all the Muses we don’t have another chapter of “Unforgiven” to contend with. That doesn’t mean all is perfect with 72 Seasons, though: I won’t get into (and frankly don’t care) about whether Lars’s drums are triggered or not – I just finished the Decibel book about Scott Burns and listened to enough 90s death metal to not care about shit like that – but I’ll be the first in line to agree that the drums seriously lack some variety. Gone are the days where the drums acted as a force for musical ideas, independent of the guitars (a reason I love ...And Justice For All so much), replaced by a backbeat. I’m not that bothered by it, but I do notice it, and that’s something everyone should have noticed during playback.

I suppose a similar fine can be levied at Hetfield’s vocal rhythms: the man has settled into an approach with his rhyming schemes, but I’m much less inclined to agree that’s a problem. Same with the very on the nose lyrical content – at this point Hetfield is exorcising his demons in the only way he knows, and I find it bizarre that the online metal community with laugh art and take issue with this when in the next breath they extolling the virtues of the mythologizing and word building “buzz” bands engage in. easy to laugh at a the giants, but easy to forget those giants pretty much accomplished everything they wanted to, and are content to follow their muse to wherever it takes them. You can like it or not, but you can’t deny after forging modern metal with their first three albums (I’d go all the way to five) Metallica earned the right to do whatever they want at this point. Don’t like it, sure…but they’ve earned enough that I’ll follow them to all their endeavors, whether I dig them all or not.

That doesn’t change the fact “Inamorata” is a slog of a final track. 11 minutes of slow doom rock is not how I would liked an album this charged to end. Here’s one place I wished they would have stuck to tradition and ended with a killer fast track, à la “Spit Out the Bone”, “My Apocalypse”, “Dyers Eve”, “Damaged, Inc.”, or even all the way back to “Metal Militia.”

But those are small complaints for an album that rose, fell, and rose again for me. I won’t deny age and nostalgia probably play into my love for 72 Seasons, but why shouldn’t it? Metallica were the band that moved me into heavier music, and as we’ve grown old together I find myself more and more connected to their particular wavelength. Take away the noise of the online chatter, and in my house, in my ears, I hear the sounds that shaped me over 40 years into the metal fan I am today.

Not bad, 72 Seasons.