{"id":8124,"date":"2023-04-21T14:20:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T19:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=8124"},"modified":"2023-04-21T14:20:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T19:20:30","slug":"72-seasons-reconstruction-and-familiarity-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/21\/72-seasons-reconstruction-and-familiarity-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"72 Seasons: Reconstruction and Familiarity (Album Review)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><i>\u201c72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told &#8216;who we are&#8217; 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.\u201d<\/i><\/h4>\n<h4><i>&#8211; <\/i>James Hetfield, commenting on the album title of\u00a0<em>72 Seasons<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>When it comes to the mighty metal titans known as Metallica, nearly everything that can be said about them has been said. They\u2019ve performed on all seven continents, they\u2019ve sold over 125 million albums, they\u2019ve written some of the biggest seminal heavy metal classics that define the genre, and they\u2019ve casted a legacy unmatched throughout their 40-plus years as not just a metal band, and not just the biggest metal band, but as THE metal band. So that poses a question about what it means to be a band of this magnitude in the modern day: do you rest on your laurels of the past or try to keep paving a future path away from it? Metallica, in a reprisal of their 2016 double-album <i>Hardwired\u2026 To Self-Destruct<\/i>, answers that question with a third option: use elements of the past to craft who they want to be in the present and future in a defining statement of \u201cthis is us, weathered and aged in all of our glory\u201d &#8211; and in the process, this band has firmly established their present identity as the four members are all knocking on the door of 60, no longer the ravenous band of 18-year-olds from California set to be the loudest and fastest but as the seasoned and tenured veterans of the metal genre who are still here to deliver an album that, in many ways, caps off their reconstruction into the start of their fifth decade of heavy music dominance.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1OeC9CGtWcM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><b><i>\u201cWrath of man, thrive upon, feeding on, 72 seasons gone\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p>To look at Metallica with a modern lens is more difficult than one would surmise. This is the band that gave the world songs such as \u201cMaster of Puppets\u201d and \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d and completely changed the landscape of heavy metal music with those tracks and albums, so anything that doesn\u2019t live up to those staggering highs would be condemned as lesser as a result of an instant comparison. It is a struggle that plagues modern media, not just music, centered around a societal affinity and fascination for \u201cthe good old days,\u201d a vice grip of nostalgia that tells its audiences that only the past can be glorified and be served as a replacement of an lesser present, and not even Metallica &#8211; as a construct &#8211; is immune to this issue at hand. Whether it\u2019s a live concert for 40,000 people, a song on the radio at any given time, or even an insert into the biggest television show in the world in <i>Stranger Things<\/i>, audiences want what they want and what they want are the big songs from the past. So when it comes time to craft new music, what is the \u201ccorrect\u201d path to go down? In comparison to 2003\u2019s critically polarizing <i>St. Anger<\/i> which saw the band presented in an unpolished sound with drop-C tuned guitar parts and <i>those<\/i> drums cobbled together in Pro Tools, the band\u2019s current output has focused on reinterpreting their more traditional thrash metal stylings in line with their current stylings and presentation of the genre, as evident on both 2008\u2019s <i>Death Magnetic<\/i> and 2016\u2019s <i>Hardwired\u2026 to Self-Destruct<\/i>. And the same philosophy of musical styling is present on <i>72 Seasons<\/i>, with some added accoutrements of their blues-rock ventures from 1996\u2019s <i>Load <\/i>and 1997\u2019s <i>Reload<\/i> in places, to give the listener a wide-encompassing view of what Metallica is, and who the band members are, heading into 2023 and beyond.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cCCrvwSluGs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><b><i>\u201cWithout darkness, there\u2019s no light!\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p>What this album serves, in its grand scheme of things, is a twofold purpose: to continue crafting and creating to add to the legacy of Metallica, and also to serve as an introspective reconstruction of its frontman and lyricist who, after three years of touring in support of <i>Hardwired,<\/i> returned to a rehabilitation facility for recovery for the second time in 18 years (or, in this case, 72 seasons) and reemerged in a world changed forever in 2020. A different outlook on the world can change someone over time, be it through reasons all-encompassing or deeply personal. Only Hetfield knows whether his lyrics are rooted in fact or shielded for the purposes of intentional vagueness, but it is not difficult to find real connections in the words, be it from Hetfield or from the listener, especially on tracks such as \u201cToo Far Gone?\u201d and the closing track \u201cInamorata.\u201d Hetfield\u2019s vocal delivery continues to be exceptional in recent recordings, as is the case here, finding further ranges both low and high in the tracklist, coupled with his commanding rhythm guitar riffs with drummer Lars Ulrich\u2019s marching backbeats to give the songs a true heartbeat. Bassist Robert Trujillo shines through with various compositional contributions, adding an extra layer to the pulsing beats and grooves on this album, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett finds himself in a blues-filled comfort zone with his \u201cimprov-first\u201d approach to solos, even if it may be a disappointment to long-tenured fans who miss the more arranged and structured solos from the likes of \u201cOne\u201d and \u201cDisposable Heroes.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hucsz2l8AFU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><b><i>\u201cMisery, she loves me\u2026 oh, oh, but I love her more\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p>In terms of song structure, the 12-track package is presented as a fully overdriven metal album with virtually zero clean guitars; everything is turned up with heavy riffs abound in the tracklist. The album opener, \u201c72 Seasons,\u201d builds to a bombast of kinetic energy with galloping guitar chugs and an anthemic chorus, laying out the foundation for the album to stand upon. Its prior singles served as a ground-floor assessment of what the album had to offer, be it the initial teaser track \u201cLux \u00c6terna\u201d with its brisk and swift thrash throwback approach, along with the slower-paced and plotting \u201cIf Darkness Had a Son\u201d and the power-chord fueled \u201cScreaming Suicide\u201d both giving a brief insight into the lyrical themes that would be on display. But only when the album released did the full onslaught of deep cuts rise up and elevate the album into a more gratifying listening experience: standout highlights include the build to release of \u201cSleepwalk My Life Away\u201d and its opening drum and bass jungle groove, the dissonant chord passages of \u201cCrown of Barbed Wire\u201d with a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><i>Reload<\/i>-era structure and a guitar solo reminiscent of \u201cSlither\u201d from said album, the dual harmony guitar work on \u201cRoom of Mirrors,\u201d and the 11-minute closing track \u201cInamorata\u201d with its compositional homages to Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy in its main riff (a C# minor structure being a rarity for Metallica) and its immaculate guitar interlude to serve as the centerpiece of the album.<\/p>\n<h3><b><i>\u201cAm I too far gone to save? Help me make it through the day\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Metallica in 2023 is not the same Metallica of the olden days, but that\u2019s not to say Metallica has put their proverbial car in cruise control and have called it a day. Instead, think of Metallica as taking the scenic route in many cases, inviting those who want to listen to enjoy the ride as it plays out in its extended entirety. 77 minutes may be a long commitment for a listener, but given that this is the band\u2019s sixth consecutive album to surpass the 70-minute mark it should be an expectation to get a long album with plenty of riffs to its name. You won\u2019t get anything new from this album, but you\u2019ll get the expected recipe that these four musicians have finessed and fine-tuned for decades. Metallica, with the release of <i>72 Seasons<\/i>, knows who and what they are &#8211; the tenured and seasoned gods of thrash metal who are still looking for ways to learn and grow from their past to form a brighter future.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_u-7rWKnVVo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>72 Seasons<\/strong><\/em><em> is available from Blackened Recordings on CD, vinyl, digital download, streaming services&#8230; and yes, even on cassette tape.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told &#8216;who \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/21\/72-seasons-reconstruction-and-familiarity-album-review\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[1713,1066,631,1714,1715,132,128,1716],"class_list":["post-8124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-72-seasons","tag-album","tag-album-review","tag-blackened-recordings","tag-heavy-metal","tag-metal","tag-metallica","tag-thrash-metal"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/72S.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-272","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8124"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8129,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124\/revisions\/8129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}