BLACKENED RECORDINGS INC.
Conceived and largely created during the dark times of the pandemic, Metallica’s much-anticipated 11th album was the last word in lockdown records: a sprawling, self-lacerating, soul-baring journey that actively challenged the listener not to flinch during its epic 77-minute running length. Joyous throwback single Lux Æterna was a red herring; the rest of 72 Seasons veered between the merely intense and the downright harrowing, James Hetfield mining his own childhood traumas to deliver something that was both universal and ultimately cathartic. Yet for its length, 72 Seasons was the most musically focused Metallica had been since The Black Album. The likes of Shadows Follow, Crown Of Barbed Wire, unheralded gem Too Far Gone? and 11-minute closer Inamorata showed that, 42 years after they started, the band were still blazing with creativity.