Metallica announce new album 72 Seasons, share new single Lux Æterna, reveal world tour dates for 2023/2024

From Loudersound.

Metallica have announced details of their forthcoming 12th studio album, 72 Seasons, and shared its thrashy lead-off single, Lux Æterna.

Produced by Greg Fidelman with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track 72 Seasons is Metallica’s follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.

On the concept behind the album title, James Hetfield says: “72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are.

“I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”

The album track list is as follows:

1. 72 Seasons
2. Shadows Follow
3. Screaming Suicide
4. Sleepwalk My Life Away
5. You Must Burn!
6. Lux Æterna
7. Crown of Barbed Wire
8. Chasing Light
9. If Darkness Had a Son
10. Too Far Gone?
11. Room of Mirrors
12. Inamorata

The album is introduced by the short, sharp thrashing blast of Lux Æterna, which clocks in at just 3 minutes 30 seconds in length, and nods back to Motorbreath from Metallica’s 1983 debut album Kill ‘Em All, with the repeated lyric “Full speed or nothing!”

The quartet have also announced an expansive world tour, stretching from April 2023 through to September 2024.

The M72 world tour will see the San Francisco quartet play two nights in every city it visits—with each No Repeat Weekend featuring two completely different setlists and support lineups. The tour will feature a new in-the-round stage design that relocates the famed Metallica Snake Pit to centre stage.

The dates are:

Apr 27, 2023: Amsterdam Johan Cruijff Arena, HOL
Apr 29, 2023: Amsterdam Johan Cruijff Arena, HOL

May 17, 2023 – Paris FR – Stade de France, FRA
May 19, 2023 – Paris FR – Stade de France, FRA

May 26, 2023: Hamburg Volksparkstadion, GER
May 28, 2023: Hamburg Volksparkstadion, GER

Jun 08, 2023: Download Festival, UK
Jun 10, 2023: Download Festival, UK

Jun 16, 2023: Gothenburg Ullevi Stadium, SWE
Jun 18 2023: Gothenburg Ullevi Stadium, SWE

Aug 04, 2023: East Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium, USA
Aug 06, 2023: East Rutherford NJ MetLife Stadium, NJ, USA

Aug 11, 2023: Montreal Stade Olympique, CAN
Aug 13, 2023: Montreal Stade Olympique, CAN

Aug 18, 2023: Arlington, TX AT&T Stadium, USA
Aug 20, 2023: Arlington, TX AT&T Stadium, USA

Aug 25, 2023: Inglewood, CA SoFi Stadium, USA
Aug 27, 2023: Inglewood, CA – SoFi Stadium, USA

Sep 01, 2023: Glendale, AZ – State Farm Stadium, USA
Sep 03, 2023: Glendale, AZ – State Farm Stadium, USA

Nov 03, 2023: St. Louis, MO – The Dome at America’s Center, USA
Nov 05, 2023 – St. Louis, MO – The Dome at America’s Center

Nov 10, 2023: Detroit, MI Ford Field, USA
Nov 12, 2023: Detroit, MI Ford Field, USA

May 24, 2024: Munich Olympiastadion, GER
May 26, 2024 – Munich DE – Olympiastadion, GER

Jun 7, 2024: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, FIN
Jun 9, 2024: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, FIN

Jun 14, 2024: Copenhagen Parken Stadium, DEN
Jun 16, 2024: Copenhagen Parken Stadium, DEN

Jul 05 2024: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, POL
Jul 07 2024: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, POL

Jul 12, 2024: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, SPA
Jul 14 2024: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, SPA

Aug 02, 2024: Foxborough, MA Gillette Stadium, USA
Aug 04, 2024: Foxborough, MA Gillette Stadium, USA

Aug 09, 2024: Chicago, IL Soldier Field, USA
Aug 11, 2024: Chicago, IL Soldier Field, USA

Aug 16, 2024: Minneapolis US Bank Stadium, USA
Aug 18, 2024: Minneapolis US Bank Stadium, USA

Aug 23. 2024: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, CAN
Aug 25, 2024: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, CAN

Aug 30, 2024: Seattle, WA Lumen Field, USA
Sep 01, 2024: Seattle, WA Lumen Field, USA

Sep 20, 2024: Mexico City Foro Sol, MEX
Sep 22, 2024 – Mexico City Foro Sol, MEX

Sep 27, 2024: Mexico City Foro Sol, MEX
Sep 29, 2024: Mexico City Foro Sol, MEX

Support acts at various shows on the tour include Pantera, Greta Van Fleet, Mammoth WVH, Ice Nine Kills, Architects, and Five Finger Death Punch.

Two-day tickets will be on sale on Friday, December 2, via Ticketmaster.

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