72 Seasons

My impressions after first listen:
I'm underwhelmed. The songs, the riffs and the vocal melodies are good but very few are great/memorable. A lot of it sounds "stock", as Lars would put it. I find a lot of James' vocal melodies on this album to sound a bit uninspired. He's usually really good at coming up with catchy stuff so that surprised me. It's a more consistent album than the previous one, but the highs are so much higher on HWTSD and on Death Magnetic as well. Also an album as long as this one would definitely benefit from having a ballad on there somewhere, since it becomes quite a challenging listen now when it isn't that dynamic.

The highlight of this album is James' vocal takes. They're great. He was great on HWTSD too but on 72 Seasons he's even better. What I also like is them incorporating guitar harmony parts in some of the songs. Among the stock riffs those parts definitely at least temporarily elevate the songs.

Overall this album really does feel like a less inspired, less hungry version of/companion piece to HWTSD. I had a feeling of that about most of the singles before the release and it proved to be true unfortunately. To be clear I don't think the album sucks though, but it just isn't up to par with the quality level I associate with Metallica.

Best new songs on first listen: Too far gone? and Shadows follow.
Worst new song on first listen: Sleepwalk my life away.
Best song overall: Probably If darkness had a son. Lux Æterna is also up there but it just isn't my favorite type of Metallica song.

Listened on Apple Music for the second time yesterday.

Track by track thoughts:

72 seasons has been growing on me lately. But I still think it needs some cut.

Shadows Follow sounded better than what it sounded like in theater however it still didn’t click with me. 5/10

SS seemed like a weak track when it was among the titles. Now it sounds stronger. I like the intro harmonies though.

Sleepwalk My Life Away is kinda Load-ish track, even music video had some nods to Until It Sleeps music video. Intro sounds HUGE and I loved it. Outro was great too. I give 9/10 to intro and outro and track a 7/10.

You Must Burn sounds like a weak version of Apollo Riff. Vocals didn’t catch me at all. Sounds too much like a filler Reload song. But… a big BUT here, starting with “In the heat of the night…” part and following riffs is an instant headbang. Maybe one of the peaks of the album. Those parts are 10/10, others 6/10.

Lux is 8/10 for me. Very catchy, very old school. This is the real “Fuel” of the album in my opinion.

Crown of the Barbed Wire. Uh, this is almost like Murder One of the album. Nothing hooks me in this song. 3/10

Chasing Light: This is where you feel all the intros starting to sound same. Some riff, some snare rolls, STOP and some riff and snare rolls again. After that part, a very generic riff comes and goes on forever. James’ scream is ok. 4/10.

If Darkness Had Son is solid 8.5/10. Intro is basic but unique. You can immediately start feeling it. Main riff has a Justice vibe to it. Verses are something Metallica have never done it before. Chorus almost sounds like something Ghost would write. Outro is very orijinal too. Something I’d like to listen over and over again.

Too Far Gone? is No Remorse 2023. Cool but not very original. If you listen as throwback, you will like it. 6/10. Solos are better in this one.

Rooms of Mirrors althought sounding very thrash, it doesn’t sound like thrash metal song at all. It sounds very power metal? I don’t know about the metal genres so please don’t get mad at me. I feel with some other songs too. These songs are not something Metallica’d write. 6/10

Inamorata: This track is where everything gets interesting. Riffs are sounding different from rest of the album. They could’ve called this My Friend of Misery II and nobody would have said anything. It is very similar in concept and instrumental-wise.
Breakdown vocals has given me goosebumps. It’s very beautiful. I felt that some of the songs were too long while this 11 minute song felt like 3-4 mins at last. I’m giving this track 8/10.

Was listening to If Darkness Had a Son on my way back from work, man that song bangs. 

My favourites are:

Shadows Follow
If Darkness Had a Son
Screaming Suicide
72 Seasons

Crown of Barbed Wire and Inamorata are also pretty cool. 

How the albums looks to me so far:

S tier:
Inamorata
72 Seasons
Lux Æterna

A tier:
Room of Mirrors
Too Far Gone
Shadows Follow

B tier:
Sleepwalk My Life Away
Screaming Suicide
If Darkness Had A Son

C tier:
You Must Burn
Chasing Light
Crown of Barbed Wire

Man, I couldn't disagree with all of this any more.

On this album, I hear a band with something to say. They sound fired up, and intentionally wanted to write these types of songs and riffs, rather than "oh its time to write a new album is this is the best we could come up with", which is what a lot of HWTSD sounded like to me. And this might sound contradictory to what I just said, but this album also comes across a lot less forced than some of the songs on HWTSD and especially DM did. 

I absolutely love the riffs, swagger, and darkness that's all over this album. Some of these riffs are really cool and full of attitude Shadows Follow, You Must Burn!, Crown of Barbed Wire, If Darkness Had A Son, Chasing Light...all such cool riffs. Shadows Follow and especially the middle section of You Must Burn! go this dark and creepy place. The guitars sound sharp, aggressive, dangerous and bad-arse (bad-ass?)  in moments like the middle of You Must Burn! in a way that haven't sounded since the Black album.

The vocal melodies are really unique and creative compared to the last couple of albums, and Hetfield's vocal delivery is the best it's been in 25-30 years.  The aggression, power and grittiness of his voice hasn't been heard on a studio album since Load.

I am honestly so blown away by this album, I didn't think they had something like this still in them. I expected an album full of Lux Aeterna, Screaming Suicides, etc... which would have been fine. It would have been another HWTSD, which again is fine, that's not a bad album. It's just a lot of middle of the road, generic modern Metallica tunes which is what I expected here.

Instead they've delivered pretty much exactly what I was hoping for but never expected - a good mix of fast songs, slow and heavy, groove, great riffs, great harmonies...great flow in most of the songs, incredible vocals, dynamics in atmosphere and tone - there's that darkness, atmospheric and creepy vibe to a lot of these songs that really starts with Shadows Follow and, aside from the bit of light with Lux (see what I did there?), it doesn't let up until Room of Mirrors which is a bit more upbeat. The Inamorata hits you right in the gut with an emotional epic out of no where.

I'm starting to come around to Sleepwalk! Not one of my favorites but I appreciate it for what it is. I've cooled off on Mirrors though, that one seems like a bit of a mess even with all of the cool parts. Still loving Crown too. I think for me it'd be:

S tier:
Inamorata
Too Far Gone
Lux Æterna

A tier:
You Must Burn
Crown of Barbed Wire
72 Seasons
If Darkness Had A Son

B tier: (these are all the "amazing parts, odd structure" songs to me)
Room of Mirrors
Chasing Light
Shadows Follow

C tier:
Sleepwalk My Life Away
Screaming Suicide


You Must Burn and Crown are right on the cusp of being in that S Tier too, I just didn't want to put half the album there

I can confidently rate Inamorata up there with Outlaw Torn and Bleeding Me, far surpassing Moth/Dream/Halo for me.  It's honestly their best song since Load and I don't see my opinion changing on that.

I'm enjoying Shadows Follow and You Must Burn more than Moth/Dream/Halo too, but these ones will need a reassess after the honeymoon phase.

While most were chasing after the leak, I needed a fix and immersed my self, get this, into disc 2 of HWTSD 😂 with out listening to spit out the Bone 🦴
I was like, can't get any worse than this. What a nice. Really set the bar low. And wow, did that ever pay off.

The comment that was mentioned a few posts back about the in studio chatter after Inamorata leaving the "That was a good one" refering to the song, album or legacy run kind hits hard. I love this band and those guys so much and I know it will end one day, sooner than it was yesterday or the day before. Every day is a gift. I don't want this ride to ever end.

This album is exactly what it needed to be at the exact right moment in time, for them and for all of us. For those of us who "get" this album, it's like a being offered an olive branch representing a peace inside of ourselves on reaffirming our dreams and wants, and that anything is possible, no matter where or how far along we have come on life.

♥️

Wow, I tend to think very similarly to you in the sense I fell HWTSD doesn't have any S tier song (except maybe for Moth).
To me it'd be (at least for now):

S:
Inamorata
Crown of Barbed Wire
You Must Burn!

A:
Lux Aeterna
Too Far Gone
Shadows Follow
Chasing Light
Room of Mirrors

B:
Sleepwalk My Life Away
If Darkness Had A Son
72 Seasons

C:
Screaming Suicide
________________________

And HWTSD for calibration

S:
---- (Moth?)

A:
Moth Into Flame
Halo On Fire
Dream No More
Spit Out The Bone

B:
Atlas Rise!
Am I Savage?
Here Comes Revenge

C:
Confusion
Murder One
ManUnKind
Hardwired

D:
Now That We're Dead

E:
Lords of Summer

This isn't bad but I kind of wanted to see the theatrical one again cause there's a lot going on in that video. Also a bit weird that they all look 20 years younger here. Hopefully we get a new chasing light video as well.

I'm happy for you guys that 72s means so much for you but I feel like there are about 4-5 HTSD songs (and couple on DM too) that own everything that is on the new one. Just goes to show you how subjective music is as an art. Easily the most subjective form of media.

I don't follow... Are there two versions of it?

S
Chasing Light
Crown of Barbed Wire
Too Far Gone

A
If Darkness Had A Son

B
Lux Aeterna
72 Seasons
Screaming Suicide
Room of Mirrors
Shadows Fallow
Inamorata

C
You Must Burn
Sleepwalk My Life Away


-----

S
Halo On Fire
Spit Out The Bone
Atlas Rise

A
Now that We're Dead
Moth Into Flame

B
Here Comes Revenge
Am I Savage
Hardwired

C
Murder One

D
Dream No More
Confusion
Manunkind