Metallica's James Hetfield Explains '72 Seasons'

Keavin Wiggins | December 05, 2022

72 Seasons album art

ALT 105.1 shared a video clip where Metallica frontman James Hetfield discusses the title of their forthcoming album, "72 Seasons", (which will hit stores on April 14th, and also the first single "Lux AEterna".

James explains in the clip, "72 Seasons came out of a book I was reading about childhood, basically, and sorting out childhood as an adult. And 72 seasons is basically the first 18 years of your life. How do you evolve and grow and mature and develop your own ideas and identity of self after those first 72 seasons?

"Some things are more difficult than others - you know, some things you can't unsee and they're with you for the rest of your life, and other things you're able to rewind the tape and make a new tape in your life. So that's the real interesting part for me, is how you're able to address those situations as an adult and mature."

He also further addressed the themes, "There's been a lot of darkness in my life and in our career and things that have happened with us, but always having a sense of hope, always having the light that is in that darkness... Without darkness, there is no light, and being able to focus a little more on the light in life instead of all of the... how it used to be and how horrible it is... There's a lot of good things going on in life - focusing on that instead, and it helps to balance out my life.

"And there's no one meaning to it, everyone has some sense of hope or light in their life, and, obviously, music is mine. And the song specifically talks about gathering of people at a concert and [being] able to see the joy and the life and the love that comes out of music and the family and the kinship in that, and just a sense of uplifting."

Hetfield describes the first single, "Lux AEterna", as an "upbeat kind of fast and joyous song," that he says in indicative of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal era. Check out the clip below: