Pretty much said it better than I could have done - Hardwired was a long EP/short album's worth of genuinely strong material diluted by another half-album's worth of disposable cuts, while 72 Seasons is fairly consistently middling in terms of enjoyment, each exciting moment not lasting long enough to win me over

Yeah, the sentences

Quote:
Omnipresent excess notwithstanding, Hardwired ponied up a few songs worth replaying. 72 Seasons, on the other hand, is predominantly an album of moments.

and

Quote:
72 Seasons calls back to the Black Album-St. Anger corridor more than the early years

tell the whole truth.

I agree with every word, apart from what you say about Papa Het; I think he is super decent on this album, but, on Hardwired, he really stole the show for me.

It's Metallica, and I am sure they have the crème de la crème of editors, producers, etc. All these people do not deserve their salaries, as far as I am concerned. Unless, this album was 72 seasons-long in its initial form, all these editors got paid for nothing.

This album is getting a lot of hate, but not enough for how bad the production is. Like nikarg mentions, they have a team that probably makes millions of dollars a year recording albums. There's no reason it should sound so light and sterile.

It takes the best band to get the best out of the reviewer. One of the better reviews ive read more than once. What you have written is absolutely perfect even though the fanboy in me denies everything.

You perfectly summed up most of my thoughts about the album 🤣

I said it somewhere on this website: what Metallica needs the most is someone to tell them to get the shears out and trim, trim, trim. Take the super-catchy riffing in the second half of „You Must Burn!” It plays out just long enough, then there is a solo, and the cool riffage returns. And this is where the bloody song should’ve ended! But nooo, they HAD to cram in another chorus, making the song overlong. Just like 90% of the songs since „Load” (but don’t be fooled, the too-long-for-no-good-reason disease already struck them on AJFA). This otherwise good song is just one example of overindulgent redundancy that plagues this album. There is no one to tell them to trim the fat, because who would they listen to?

Listen to „Sleepwalk My Life Away”. It’s Metallica either quoting or plagiarizing themselves, because main riff is a variant of „Enter Sandman”. But at least the riff, however derivative, is good, which can’t be said about the rest of the song. There are quite a few more moments here that bring to mind some older songs/riffs from Metallica’s back catalogue.

Fortunately, there is a bit of good stuff here and there too. Parts of „Shadows Follow”, most of „You Must Burn!” (even if the main riff reeks of „Sad But True”), „Lux Æterna” (overall cool trip down memory lane), parts of „Chasing Light”, the chorus of „If Darkness Had A Son”.

The last three songs deserve a separate paragraph. I really want to say that they give hope for Metallica’s next album, but knowing how long it takes for them to write something new, I doubt we will ever hear another full-length effort from these guys. Anyway, “Too Far Gone?” is disarmingly catchy, adventurous, and plain cool to behold. So is, mostly, “Room of Mirrors”. “Inamorata” is my favourite track – a lengthy, but constantly engaging tribute to Black Sabbath.

Musicianship is a mixed bag. James Hetfield’s singing is stellar, he hasn’t sounded that great since two (over)loads. Drumming is subpar, no surprise here. Lars Ulrich is superglued to his snare drum, so much so that I want to yell in excitement when he hits a tom once in a blue moon. Anyway, he should remove toms from his setup, as he’s not using them anyway. Plus he would be then better visible on stage without those pesky toms obstructing his spotlight-hungry persona. Also, drums sound too perfect, and too tight. I sense some studio trickery here. Kirk Hammett is out of ideas. All solos he plays on the album are exactly the same, minus the ending of “Inamorata”. But hey’ at least you can hear the bass.

Metallica have fucked up too many times for haters to ever forgive them. Black nail polish and short hair in 1996, tin can snare in 2003, James morphing into furniture in 2011 – these are just a few highlights that catapulted Metallica to many a fan’s shitlists. Whatever they do now, these things will hover over their incredible legacy from the 80’s, ever influencing the way people judge them.

Anyone who expects Metallica to play thrash like in the 80’s needs a reality check (“Spit Out The Bone” was a fluke, however great). It will never happen. But still, even if I don’t expect them to serve me another “Blackened”, I want to listen to good music. There isn’t enough of that here.

Your rating is also spot on. I'll add half a point for a few moments of joy this album gives me, and for "Inamorata". 6.5 from me.

I liked it a bit more than you, but pretty much agree with everything you wrote.

I mean, there are some good moments on this record, but yeah I fully agree that nothing really sticks out enough to give this album any real staying power.

Also, I feel like a lot of the songs are a bit too long for what they are. "Crown Of Barbed Wire" is a perfect example of that. Solid and very enjoyable song that I think would have been better if it was a minute and a half or two minutes shorter. And there are a couple of others where I felt the exact same. Might actually further reinforce that feeling of this album being one of "moments".

The vocals are (like you mentioned) very good. James did a good job and I liked most of the vocal deliveries he did.

I've seen some praise this album to the high heavens and others bashing it into the ground. And as usual, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. This is by no means a terrible album, but (to me at least) it's not that exceptionally interesting either tbh.

Written by metalbrat on 24.04.2023 at 19:30

It takes the best band to get the best out of the reviewer. One of the better reviews ive read more than once. What you have written is absolutely perfect even though the fanboy in me denies everything.

Thank you, that's very kind. I appreciate you reading (rereading) my review even though our experience with the album was different.

On point review, nothing to add. Still It blows my mind how a band of this magnitude sounds so amateurish nowadays.

If 72 Seasons would have been an EP with three songs (Screaming Suicide, 72 Seasons and Lux Æterna) I would be very enthousiastic about the new stuff!!
Alas, it's a full length album and except those three cool tracks, the rest varies from average (Room Of Mirrors) via boring (Inamorata) to toe-curlingly crappy (Sleepwalk My Life Away). Nevertheless I always like Kirk's guitar solos (I missed them on St. Anger).

Heh, rating would have been enough, so many way better music is waiting to be discussed about... this is not the band that created ride-master-justice....

Not much in the review to back the rating. the reviewer says the album is too long for his taste and then keeps repeating that in different ways. the review is too repetitive and long for my taste.

before I'm labeled as a fanboy, let me clarify I am not crazy about the album. I like it for what it is, i just don't expect it to bend to my will.

The problem with Metallica's fanbase is that it is so diverse that on a spectrum of St. Anger to Ride The Lightning, there's a fan of each style and era and those fans want the band to adapt to what their mental image of the band is.

Good to see the band not pay heed and keep marching on in their own way

Written by The Melting Snow on 25.04.2023 at 21:11

Not much in the review to back the rating. the reviewer says the album is too long for his taste and then keeps repeating that in different ways. the review is too repetitive and long for my taste.

The irony is not lost on me of writing a double-length review to complain about how the album is twice as long as it needs to be. I also suffer from an inability to be efficient in my communications.

If I were to boil down simply what I perceive to be the negative points:
- much too long (77 minutes is long even for a great album, let alone a thrash album that doesn't have the decency to be Vektor)
- generally uninteresting songwriting, punctuated only by occasional moments of inspiration (as those I enumerated in the review)
- bland performances/tones on the part of the drums and lead guitar

I guess that's about the extent of my real complaints. The production isn't great either, as mentioned above (although I was listening to Death Magnetic in preparation for this and that would make anything sound great); I just find the album unimpressive overall outside some particular parts. A 6.2 is a roughly average score and I think that this is a roughly average album.

Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 25.04.2023 at 22:31

- much too long (77 minutes is long even for a great album, let alone a thrash album that doesn't have the decency to be Vektor)

Funnily enough, I think Vektor suffers from the same disease as Metallica, namely inability to trim their songs to acceptable size.

Fuck euphemism, I couldn't get past the 3rd song.

What a terrible release.

I liked this album a lot cuz it's a fusion of two Metallica's Full lengths: And Justice For All and The Black Album on many tracks. I like the theme cuz he chose to talk about depression since the child one till the adult one. Nobody in Thrash metal music uses to talk about it. So many albums for me have the same theme like Nuclear bombing, and other stuff that remembers us about the historical events happened since the WWII.

I don't give to 72 Seasons a 10, but a 7 I think it may be a good vote. For me Metallica are explaining that they are living in a world full of problems, where Humanity is going to be lost if dosen't take action about depression to get happy of its life.

Written by nikarg on 24.04.2023 at 16:02

Yeah, the sentences

Quote:
Omnipresent excess notwithstanding, Hardwired ponied up a few songs worth replaying. 72 Seasons, on the other hand, is predominantly an album of moments.

and

Quote:
72 Seasons calls back to the Black Album-St. Anger corridor more than the early years

tell the whole truth.

I agree with every word, apart from what you say about Papa Het; I think he is super decent on this album, but, on Hardwired, he really stole the show for me.

It's Metallica, and I am sure they have the crème de la crème of editors, producers, etc. All these people do not deserve their salaries, as far as I am concerned. Unless, this album was 72 seasons-long in its initial form, all these editors got paid for nothing.

"It's Metallica, and I am sure they have the crème de la crème of editors, producers, etc. All these people do not deserve their salaries, as far as I am concerned."

Man, and those horrible music videos... Nobody deserve their salaries for sure. Shame.

Am I the only one who feels the tiredness they put in the release? Someone said moments, that's spot on. There are catchy moments that remind one of their past glory, but they are sparse. None of the songs is tight, ferocious, heavy(?) so I couldn't bring myself to headbang 1 minute from all 77. The bassy section at the ending of the 'Crown of barbed wire' is old Metallica, as it was young. Now it's old enough and it's trying to learn new tricks while pretending it is doing it. 'You must burn'. But slooooow. I swear by Lux Aeterna I thought I had Judas Priest in the queue. 'Chasing light' starts in a very cool way, goes into a sleazy section, has a nice solo and again that chorus-like section and so are all the songs. Silly is a song about the darkness' son who says 'here I am' and asks temptation to 'let him be". 'Too far gone'? Here you are! The previous 'here i am's are nothing compared to the Oh's in this song. The guys show that they are still masters of their tools but to dignify these compositions as songs is too far gone. They kid me and themselves, I swear. There's nothing to fight for in their age: PTSD, social issues, poverty, anything. Now it's just: "Would you kritisaiz, skrutinaiz, stigmataiz?" I had hopes for the last song, hearing how it started, but...the Oh's get a comeback here. I have to be fair regarding this song, as it's easily the grooviest, the coolest and the best of the whole freaking LP. Neither is this song ferocious or heavy, but bluesy yet it's the damn most accomplished of the bunch. Make no mistake, it still has the sucking whiney choruses like: misereeee. They have to be wise, I get it, throw a bunch of poor sounding songs at the audience for this to really appreciate at least one. I would call this album more appropiately THE O ALBUM, but that bad is not. It's just that, it isn't good either. The guys can still do it but they won't. They can write parts but not an album, not even songs.

Written by ivulv on 12.05.2023 at 17:53

Am I the only one who feels the tiredness they put in the release? Someone said moments, that's spot on. There are catchy moments that remind one of their past glory, but they are sparse. None of the songs is tight, ferocious, heavy(?) so I couldn't bring myself to headbang 1 minute from all 77. The bassy section at the ending of the 'Crown of barbed wire' is old Metallica, as it was young. Now it's old enough and it's trying to learn new tricks while pretending it is doing it. 'You must burn'. But slooooow. I swear by Lux Aeterna I thought I had Judas Priest in the queue. 'Chasing light' starts in a very cool way, goes into a sleazy section, has a nice solo and again that chorus-like section and so are all the songs. Silly is a song about the darkness' son who says 'here I am' and asks temptation to 'let him be". 'Too far gone'? Here you are! The previous 'here i am's are nothing compared to the Oh's in this song. The guys show that they are still masters of their tools but to dignify these compositions as songs is too far gone. They kid me and themselves, I swear. There's nothing to fight for in their age: PTSD, social issues, poverty, anything. Now it's just: "Would you kritisaiz, skrutinaiz, stigmataiz?" I had hopes for the last song, hearing how it started, but...the Oh's get a comeback here. I have to be fair regarding this song, as it's easily the grooviest, the coolest and the best of the whole freaking LP. Neither is this song ferocious or heavy, but bluesy yet it's the damn most accomplished of the bunch. Make no mistake, it still has the sucking whiney choruses like: misereeee. They have to be wise, I get it, throw a bunch of poor sounding songs at the audience for this to really appreciate at least one. I would call this album more appropiately THE O ALBUM, but that bad is not. It's just that, it isn't good either. The guys can still do it but they won't. They can write parts but not an album, not even songs.

Me too this is tooooo long and boring but Metallica suffers by a sickness… ego-maniac that everything they done is great a doesn’t matter what you said or me or anybody it doesn’t matter. This high self-esteem and zero self-criticism made that kind of infrastructure that doesn’t drive anywhere.

First half of the record till "Lux Æterna", i was not convinced at all, altough it had a couple of interesting songs. But the second half of the record is good and vey consistent in terms of the quality of the songs. Yeah, it will never be the old Metallica again, forget that, but im glad to see that the guys still have the agressiveness, the speed, and the power in them. Give it a couple of spins, and you´ll enjoy it.