Seven years after releasing their studio album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, Metallica has made a comeback, officially having released their 11th studio album titled 72 Seasons on Friday, April 14. Older fans, and even new ones, had their calendars anticipatingly marked, and they have been pre-ordering CDs, vinyl records, and other forms of merchandise since the news came out last November. 

The album contains 12 songs, four of them already released as singles before the complete album came out. As a whole, the album is about 77 minutes. The genre of this album hasn’t changed from the rest of their discography, which has continued to be categorized as thrash metal or heavy metal. 

James Hetfield, the lead singer of the group, explained during an interview, that the title 72 Seasons was a reference to growing up during the first 18 years of one’s life and what one endures within that time. So, throughout 18 years there are four seasons each year, which is 72 total. James also mentioned that there was a clear intentional theme to the album, and he had a “vision” for the theme, which was adolescence and evolving as a person.

“I am very excited about Metallica finally coming out with a new album. Now that it’s out, I’ll do nothing but listen to it for the next few months,” said freshman Omar Rawashdeh.

“I’m happy the band decided to release an album again after so long; hopefully this won’t be the last. I’m sure I’m not the only one happy about it either,” said another excited anonymous freshman.

The songs on the album have a creative and new, yet still classic style. It’s easy to tell that the entire album was written well and thoughtfully. So far, the most popular songs on the album include: “If Darkness Had a Son”, “Lux Aeterna”, and of course the title track, “72 Seasons.”

While there are some who gave the album a bad reputation online calling it “lazy” or “repetitive,” other fans of the band agreed that compared to the last album Metallica released before 72 Seasons, their new songs still have the original Metallica sound that people know and love around the world. Some have even called this their best release since their self-titled album, Metallica, more commonly known as “the black album,” which came out in 1991. 

Despite the few negative comments the album received, there’s no doubt that this album brought back vintage Metallica with Hetfield’s aged but unchanged vocals, their raw-sounding instrumentals, and Kirk Hammett’s guitar solos.