Check out my video below where I break down and discuss 72 Seasons, the title track from Metallica’s forthcoming album of the same name.

The band still takes pot shots from many metal music consumers with accusations of sounding slow and like a pop rock outfit. I have to say honestly, such arguments are completely lacking in any logical foundation. While they haven’t showed some of the grand and epic musical tension that they built their sound on much in the first three teasers for this new record (which I’ve been very critical of), you certainly can’t call it anything but metal. It certainly slips easily into the basic thrash descriptions based on chord voicings, tempo and beat structures.

This latest offering though has some key indicators that there is potentially a half decent record here, provided they can deliver more of some key classic Metallica ingredients that I talk about in this reaction video. My expectations are still not that high though as I feel they’d have used what they felt were the strongest tunes for the teasers. So this track could, rather worryingly be the high water mark for this album. At this point, I’m really not sure they have another one in them. Time will tell…

Regardless of how this band writes and performs I think there will always be a legion of fans that simply will not accept them in a metal context. They do this with any band that breaks out from their niche into an ultra successful act. It’s a strange phenomenon where some Metal Heads just want metal to stay below the mainstream radar.They need it to be an underdog by definition.

My personal view is that a band’s success shouldn’t be a factor. Only the quality of their art and they’re craft. Metallica have made many mistakes over the years. One thing they never did was set an expectation that they’d play a certain speed or stick to a particular production style. Let’s not forget, they first “rocked the metal boat” with Fade To Black. So they’re no strangers to being labelled as “Sell outs”. That’s right, Metallica were already sell outs all the way back in ’84…

At the age these guys are, I think they’re still doing a decent job and I honestly think they’re being true to themselves. I think they’ve also earned at least a basic level of respect, and it’s simply in bad taste not to acknowledge the touring mileage and staying power these guys have achieved. It’s just bad manners not to. In that, they maintain a certain level of fundamental credibility in my eyes. Despite the errors and sometimes down right laziness a couple of the members have displayed over the years.

Some artists make music for they’re fans. Some do it for themselves. Metallica are the latter. If you only had bands like the former group, things would be pretty predictable and boring. Yeah, you get blunders,but you also get absolute gems. While 72 Seasons doesn’t stand out as a top example of the band’s work, it’s definitely not far from the mark. Certainly not as far as some of its critics will try to convince you of.

It has some elaborate arrangements. The Tik Tok generation however may have rotten their brains too much to have the attention span for. Too much instant gratification you see…. Bloody Wankers. 😂 It has killer vocals, with a really well delivered set of vocal harmonies. A nice concise solo that serves the song and shows some actual effort from Kirk and it’s at a nice lively pace as well as some cool dual guitar harmonies . All kicked off with a killer bass driven intro at speed from Rob.

Honestly, what’s not to like? The verse riff is a little plain and the pre-chorus riff itself sounds a tad recycled but other than that, this song is pretty edgy, has a great chorus hook and I think sits in the discography pretty well alongside the likes of Battery, Creeping Death or any other up tempo classic you want to hold against them in an argument about how they’ve just never been the same since the Black Album.

But alas, there’s just no pleasing some folk..