Metallica’s 12th studio album, 72 Seasons, will arrive on April 14, 2023, on the band’s own Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with Hetfield & Ulrich and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track album is the band’s first full-length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.

Speaking on the concept of the album title, James said: “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 a reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”