72 Seasons

KH: Yeah, and you know what? I won’t know until we get to Amsterdam, I come to that point, and I play whatever I play. It’s going to be a surprise to me, and I think that’s a beautiful thing, rather than getting a pre-packaged thing that you just know what’s going happen. You’ve heard it 40,000 times before and, “Okay, yeah, that sounds just like the album, yay.” People are into it, but I’m not that into it these days.


These kind of comments are a little bit dissapointing.
He earned this spot and freedom by hard work but also can't rule out the fact that by being at the right place, right time as well.
Huge respect to him and I like him a lot. He has achieved a lot in terms of iconic guitar work.

But people enjoy songs for a reason.
They go to shows for a reason.

While I admit, he's not half bad live (not in terms of accuracy but presence) as people seem to claim, at least not in the times I've seen them live, people be there for the music.

I think a balance between clever improvisation and accuracy is what is needed here.
He definately needs to find a more creative place in terms of ' his vocabulary'.

I am all positive for him maintaining his musical vocabulary and confidence and new found love for being free.
But it all comes down to what that vocabulary conveys in the end.

People are not there for a certain players own renditions or improvisation based on how he feels at that particular moment.

I think he is exaggerating that 'improvisation' factor. He may just not be very interested following the note for note performances. A lot of good improvisers work hard to achieve that level.

Playing guitar and working on 'your' approach to guitar are two different things.
But in the end, none of the Metallica guys (except Rob) are known for approaching to practicing and fine tuning their playing. They just do. That's how it always been. They practice on tours, every night. Their way is this.

Kirk seems to enjoy his craft "this way".

I don't enjoy it and I would much prefer the other way but it is his craft.

My problem with Kirk's improvisation babble is that he doesn't improvise at all. Playing the same random guitar licks isn't the same as improvising.

In fact, most rock guitar players are pretty lame at improvisation. They're just lazy, but claim to have freedom, feel and passion.

Kirk is completely disconnected with reality IMHO, and he's just "too far gone to save".

We're better off enjoying this band without thinking too much about him or having unreasonable expectations about his work.

A lot of these riffs didn't strike me as great on my first few listens, but I've come around to them way more. Across the board they're more simplistic than the Metallica standard, but also more singable? I find myself humming the riffs of 72S and Shadows a lot.

I can live with someone's autopilot mode once in a while, specially when the workload is too heavy. But living in complete autopilot when you release just 2 records during a 15y time span is just mental...

agreed.

Also just came across to this video. 
I didn't question its authenticity but seems like it is.

Honestly there’s so much if this shit on this record, and it drives me crazy. The songs are still good I think, but in most songs there are completely useless sections which makes NO sense. Remove them and a good song would become a great or even amazing song.

There’s literally unnecessary filler parts in each and every track. Chasing Light and Room Of Mirrors being the worst offenders.
I don’t know if they are trying to be clever instead of just returning to a part, but they fail big time. A song doesn’t need weird parts to connect stuff together, just do it the easy and natural way so it flows.


And I agree with Inamorata, that songs is the most well written of them all. There’s only one bad transition/annoying filler part, the rest is epic.

The snare abuse doesn't bother me, I tune it out. But every time he does a little snare fill, it reminds me of The Sisters of Mercy or those 80s bands that used a drum machine with the same snare fill all over every song.

If One was released today...

"What the fuck is he doing at the end of the song with all those snare fills?"

Sad But True's bread and butter is also those stupid snare fills, with the black album snare.



"That's just his "vocabulary" man."

I gave the album a week off with a few songs getting a random spin. This evening I played the whole thing twice back to back. I still love it. Still sounds great. Even Sleepwalk isn't so bad anymore. I wonder album we would have gotten if there was no pandemic. Most of the riffs were already there, but the situation brought out these songs. Weird to think about. Or, if the universe had already written them, would they have come out exactly the same 🤔

Saw a couple posts on Reddit today of people saying their favorite songs were my least favorites (Sleepwalk, Light, Mirrors). I'm loving the diversity of opinions on these songs, and it's cool how a few songs haven't risen to the top of everyone's lists mostly unanimously besides Inamorata (I know some aren't fans of it either).

Did the same today, only skipped You Must Burn, got a real Load vibe in places and Beyond Magnetic. 

I find myself going back to the slower, sludgy ones more so than the Thrashers. Just the mood I've been in, but I could listen to Crown, Burn, Inamorata all day on repeat, and have been all day today ☺️

My top 5:
1. Inamorata
2. Room of Mirrors
3. 72 Seasons
4. Lux Æterna
5. Too Far Gone?