Metallica Announces New Album 72 Seasons, First Single Released

Metallica have announced their first new album since 2016, with the first single officially out. The metal band announced on Monday that their 12th studio album 72 Seasons is set to release on April 14th, 2023 via their Blackened Recordings label. The first single from the album, “Lux Æterna,” is now online and you can check it out below.

The LP is their first since Hardwired…To Self-Destruct in 2016. James Hetfield said of the album (per Variety):

“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.”

Also coming with the album is a world tour that will kick off in 2023. The M72 world tour will launch in April in Amsterdam and see the band play two nights in every city. Two-day tickets go on sale on December 2nd, with single day tickets available beginning January 20th. You can find more information about the tour here.

The tracklist for the album is:

* 72 Seasons
* Shadows Follow
* Screaming Suicide
* Sleepwalk My Life Away
* You Must Burn!
* Lux Æterna
* Crown of Barbed Wire
* Chasing Light
* If Darkness Had a Son
* Too Far Gone?
* Room of Mirrors
* Inamorata