METALLICA - 72 SEASONS (2023) [FULL ALBUM]

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If you go to the "Isolated Tracks" page on on YouTube, they actually have many of the songs from the record with isolated guitars. The quality is pretty low-fi and blurry from the extraction process, but you get a general feel for just how under-gained, thin and dry the guitar sound is.



There's very little in the way of the low-mids and crisp top end that Hetfield is known for. Sure it's "clear" and does a good job of staying out of the way of the bass, cymbals and snare sounds...But It' way too tame a sound for this music. I'm surprised Hetfield signed off. He needed more Mesa, Diezel and Wizard here for sure.

WTF? Almost sounds like he's using the middle pickup position with the neck pickup blended in a bit. Which actually can sound great for classic rock using a typical PAF/Marshall setup but for anything approaching Hetfield style high gain, tight palm muted percussive playing, nope.
 
WTF? Almost sounds like he's using the middle pickup position with the neck pickup blended in a bit. Which actually can sound great for classic rock using a typical PAF/Marshall setup but for anything approaching Hetfield style high gain, tight palm muted percussive playing, nope.
Exactly. Disappointing, as I'm one of the guys here that really likes 6 or 7 of these songs.
 
I like being five minutes into a song that should have ended long ago but it still goes on another torturous three minutes followed by another anticlimactic minute long intro into the next boring song
 
I have tickets to see them in Giants Stadium this summer, full disclosure I’m WAY more pumped to see Mammoth VH and Pantera open up.
I got to watch Mammoth here in Nashville, and I got to tell you... they are one of the tightest band live I've seen!
They were that good! And the songs were perfect, in every way, for their live performance.
They are putting out one of the best shows out there.
110% worth seeing!!
 
Agree. Not only would Bob inject some weight and muscle into the guitar sounds...He would talk the guys into editing the songs to be more compact and poignant.
agreed and I've only heard snippets but the last album was like a dream Theater serial riffs to mash together stuff i could care less about listening to again.
 
James' wrist is the most under-utilized weapon in the band. The only time he gets to show it off is when they play songs from the 80s. But since Lars can't play fast anymore, the whole band is nerfed because of it. So is their music. Metallica is forced to being a mid tempo-only band because of Lars. Mid tempo isn't bad per se, but they certainly aren't writing any more Fade to Blacks...
 
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You know, @Geo and I disagree about a lot of stuff, but damn was be bang-on the other day when he said that the death of Metallica happened when James "broke." That is exactly it. He nailed it.

James changed pretty fundamentally sometime in the late 90's / early 00's when he went from being a snarling, raging, piss and vinegar fueled machine to a totally pacified, subdued, gentle kind of dude who seemed like he'd be the kind of guy who gets up early to go bird watching in the park for fun, right after he writes a paragraph or two in his gratuity journal. No idea what happened specifically, but everything about the band changed at that point. I even think the attitude was still there during the Load/Reload era, and even going into the Garage Inc. album. But then, James went from being the guy creating all the mayhem to the guy standing outside looking through a window at it like a tourist. Then they hired the smiling, goofball ass, gorilla waddling Robert Trujillo as Jason's replacement, and the band's changed tone was pretty much cemented from that point on.

At this point, Metallica just sounds like a "hello, fellow kids" type of second rate cover band. Yes, bands change and evolve, but a lot of bands at least maintain some kind of their original spirit. Metallica has not maintained any of that original spark at all. They have lost it completely, at least for me. To me, they don't sound like they're "evolving" anymore, they sound like they're trying to be something they're just not.

I'd rather have 10 more Load / Reload clones that are slower and more rock than metal, but at least have some kind of genuine soul and attitude in them than a single other Death Magnetic / Hardwired / 72 Seasons disjointed cutting room riff floor salad "haha we're definitely still a thrash band this is fun!" type nonsense.

Then again, maybe the bigger (and much more horrifying) problem is that there is nothing to "recover" under the surface any longer. Maybe they are making genuine music for them right now, and the real issue is that their art is simply no longer interesting because they have nothing left to say, but they're just still making music because that's all they've ever done and hey, people have to do something, right?
 
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Metallica peaked with the black album and have done nothing better since. Bands only have so much creativity before they become repetitive and tired. Nobody can keep up for decades when you're engraved into one generation of music. I admire their effort but wish they had quit years ago and went out on top. They could've toured off their first 5 albums for decades.
 
Then again, maybe the bigger (and much more horrifying) problem is that there is nothing to "recover" under the surface any longer. Maybe they are making genuine music for them right now, and the real issue is that their art is simply no longer interesting because they have nothing left to say, but they're just still making music because that's all they've ever done and hey, people have to do something, right?

I think that’s largely it, they’ve resolved a lot of the issues that others feel may have made them great. Much like Tool; people were all pissy when Maynard wasn’t screaming all over Fear Inncolum when the dude was writing about resolving his issues over 20 years ago; personally, if Maynard came out all pissed off at 50-something I’d look at it like “Dude, were you just talkin’ shit on all those previous albums?“ I’d hope to see people who wrote of struggle decades ago seeing those struggles resolved.

A lot of people felt Metallica was over sharing when they put out Some Kind Of Monster but that documentary showed them in the midst of doing exactly that; resolving their issues. And that came some 7-8 years after the Load era when they all said “We’ve already put in the hard work, we already achieved our goal of becoming the world’s biggest metal band, we just want to enjoy our success now”. And around the rehab era Lars and James were pretty much in agreement they weren’t enjoying working with each other anymore, I’d imagine the 20 years since then they’ve continuously resolved every little issue they could so walking into work didn’t feel like walking into work, they can certainly afford to do so and being self-contained goes a long way with that.
 
After really digesting this the past few days, I think this is their best effort since the black album. A lot of you will say that's not saying much 👍and I get that. But, I'm really enjoying this. The harmonies in Inamorata remind me of Orion.
You're not alone. A frw people I have spoken to hated the record upon first listen and have since warmed up to it after letting the riffs, hooks and melodies "sink in" a bit.
 
Metallica peaked with the black album and have done nothing better since. Bands only have so much creativity before they become repetitive and tired. Nobody can keep up for decades when you're engraved into one generation of music. I admire their effort but wish they had quit years ago and went out on top. They could've toured off their first 5 albums for decades.
Load and reload are Just grungy black album s . I love both
 
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I've been listening to them since high school and half my friends hated each album, every time an album came out. Too heavy, too light, too whatever. Some stuff I struggle with (all of Load) but I live their determination and drive thru drugs, alcohol, deaths, etc. To come out with Lux Eterna after Lulu is a win.
 
Still haven't listened..
MOF, I haven't listened to anything after Death Magnetic.. :sneaky:
 
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