Metallica have launched the first single from their forthcoming album, 72 Seasons, and shared international tour dates for 2023 and 2024.
Metallica have returned with Lux Æterna, lifted from their upcoming 12-track record, 72 Seasons which is slated for release on April 14, 2023. They’ve also shared a slew of tour dates across Europe and North America, scheduled to kick off that same month.
Produced by Greg Fidelman, James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich, 72 Seasons will mark the band’s first studio album release in six years, following their 2016 LP, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.
Metallica’s frontman, James Hetfield has discussed the new album in a press release: “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.”
Hetfield continues, “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.”
The band’s riotous, head-banging new hit, Lux Æterna dropped on Monday (November 28) and is named after the Latin word for “eternal light”. The track is coupled with a vibrant, compelling music video directed by Tim Saccenti, who has also worked on videos for acts like Korn and Depeche Mode. Check out the clip via YouTube above.
Metallica’s 2023 record, 72 Seasons is available for pre-save/pre-order here. See the full tracklist below, and a list of their tour dates for 2023 and 2024 via their website. Stream the new single, Lux Æterna via Spotify today.
72 Seasons tracklist
01 72 Seasons
02 Shadows Follow
03 Screaming Suicide
04 Sleepwalk My Life Away
05 You Must Burn!
06 Lux Æterna
07 Crown of Barbed Wire
08 Chasing Light
09 If Darkness Had a Son
10 Too Far Gone?
11 Room of Mirrors
12 Inamorata