Metallica has just announced a new album and tour for 2023! The 12-track album, “72 Seasons,” is their first album of new material since 2016’s “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.”
Per their announcement: “NEW ALBUM… 72 SEASONS! Yes, you read that correctly… we have completed recording at HQ, and our 12th studio album is coming your way! It’s been six years since Hardwired…To Self Destruct, so we think it’s about time for some new music. With 12 tracks totaling over 77 minutes, 72 Seasons hits all the places you can consume music on Friday, April 14, 2023.”
As for the title, front-man James Hetfield explained, “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.”
“72 Seasons” will be available on “CD, 2LP 140g black vinyl, two different colored vinyl variations, and digitally in the Met Store.” If you preorder the album, you will receive an instant digital track, “Lux Æterna.” The band has also completed the video for the new song.
To go along with the album, the rockers will take to the road for 46 shows in 22 cities across the globe. Dubbed Metallica’s M72 World Tour, each “No Repeat Weekend” will have the band play a city twice, but with different setlists and openers for each performance. Supporting acts include Architects, Mammoth WVH, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, Volbeat, Pantera, and Greta Van Fleet (check dates near you for specific opener).
SoCal residents can catch Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, and Lars Ulrich in person on August 25th (with Pantera and Mammoth WVH) and August 27th at SoFi Stadium (with Five Finger Death Punch and Ice Nine Kills).
Citi cardmembers and Metallica fan club members will have access to presales which begin for two-day tickets on Wednesday (November 30th) with general on sale beginning Friday. Single-day tickets will be available January 20th.
