LARS ULRICH Calls '72 Seasons' METALLICA's 'COVID Lockdown Record': 'We Thought For Sure This Thing Would Leak'

Earlier today (Monday, November 28),METALLICA announced the title and release date of its forthcoming 12th studio album. "72 Seasons" will be available April 14, 2023 via the band's own Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with METALLICA guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track album is METALLICA's first full-length collection of new material since 2016's "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct". METALLICA also dropped the first single from the album, "Lux Æterna", which is Latin for "eternal light" and part of the Catholic requiem mass. Tim Saccenti, who has helmed videos for DEPECHE MODE and KORN, directed the song's accompanying clip.

METALLICA also announced a series of concerts for 2023 and 2024. Presented worldwide by Liquid Death and Blackened American Whiskey (in North America only) and promoted by Live Nation, the "M72" world tour will see METALLICA playing two nights in every city it visits — with each "No Repeat Weekend" featuring two completely different setlists and support lineups. The "M72" tour will feature a bold new in-the-round stage design that relocates the famed METALLICA Snake Pit to center stage, as well as the "I Disappear" full-tour pass and the debut of discounted tickets for fans under 16 years of age.

On Monday morning, Ulrich joined SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show" to talk to Howard Stern and co-host Robin Quivers about the new METALLICA music and tour. He said: "We've been working on a new album for the last year, year and a half — our COVID lockdown record. And the one thing that we've done all through that is for the first time in our career, we never really talked about it. So, rather than, 'Hey, there's a new record' and countdowns, and, 'Guess what's coming your way,' and all that kind of shit, we've been tight-fucking-lipped about it. And this morning I wanna share a new song with the world and I wanna tell everybody about the new METALLICA album. And we have a new tour, we have a song, we have a video — all the bells and whistles."

Lars went on to say that he was surprised by the fact that news of fresh music from METALLICA hadn't reached social media or the press prior to today's announcement.

"We thought for sure this thing would leak," he said. "It hasn't fucking leaked."

Regarding "M72", Ulrich said: "We're announcing a two-year world tour. We have all the dates for '23 and '24 ready to go. We're coming to a city near you. We're playing two nights in every city, playing two completely different shows. So you buy one ticket for two shows — a Friday and a Sunday — and you get what's called a no-repeat weekend, which, obviously, is an old radio term. You get two one hundred percent completely different and unique shows."

Two-day tickets for "M72" will be on sale Friday, December 2. Single day tickets will be available beginning January 20.

In an official press release announcing "72 Seasons", Hetfield explained the album title by saying: "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 re-enactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry."

In the six years since the arrival of "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", METALLICA has reissued some of its classic albums, released a second live album with the San Francisco Symphony, commissioned a covers album featuring the likes of GHOST, VOLBEAT, WEEZER, Corey Taylor and THE HU, and landed on the Billboard songs chart with "Master Of Puppets" after a prominent placement in the hit Netflix show "Stranger Things".