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New Album Review | ‘72 Seasons’ by Metallica | Did we like it?
46 Plays1 year ago
Metallica are back!!!
With a brand new album and, arguably, their heaviest work in decades the Metal titans return.
Daria & Laz give their initial thoughts on the album after a weekend of digging into ‘72 Seasons’!
You can also watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mfJVCp_TzbPNZNMMemJuw
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Transcript
Introduction to Minds of Metal
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Minds of Metal, my name is Daria and I'm Laz and together we're our husband and wife team, both pro musicians talking all things heavy-neckled.
First Impressions of '72 Seasons'
00:00:17
Speaker
And today we're here to share with you our initial thoughts on the new Metallica album called 72 Seasons. That's right, on Friday we were treated to a brand new Metallica album, the first one since hardwired to self-destruct and we're going to give you our initial thoughts having sat with the album for the weekend.
00:00:37
Speaker
So we're going to start off with the all important question. Did you like the album? Yes, I really did. I really did. You guys watched our previous videos and I don't think we were this like hopeful, you know, going into the album because the singles sort of, they weren't disappointing, but they didn't just, they just didn't hit the mark on their own. Yeah. But when we heard the album, it just really flowed so well. What about you?
00:01:06
Speaker
Yep, I really enjoyed the album. I really enjoyed it. I didn't think I would. What I loved was that there was a fantastic balance between early Metallica, like the speed metal stuff, that was not as dark or evil as thrash metal, but still fast, still pacey, still a nice energy. I loved lots of the instrumental sections that had really heavy riffs that sort of hearkened back to And Justice for All and Black album. And I just thought it was a really cool modern metal album. Really enjoyed it.
Musical Influences and Style
00:01:37
Speaker
So the first thing I want to talk about is the consistency of the album. I thought that whilst I didn't love each song as much, and it wasn't like I loved every song or I liked every song, there was some that I really enjoyed, some that I thought were just okay, but they all sounded the same. Yes. Not in a negative way, I mean that there was a consistent theme going on with the music.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Same thing here. And I really like that. It's like this album has this signature sound now. Yeah. And I thought each song had some really light moments where we could sing along and enjoy James's sort of older, but still just as good vocals. But at the same time, heaviness. There were so many riffs in each song and like mostly in the instrumental sections where I thought, God, this is heavy. This could be from Unjustice for All or Black Albums.
00:02:23
Speaker
And I thought it just gave us a really well-rounded album. Another thing in terms of the sound of the album is when we listen to it first, especially compared to something like Hardwired or Death Magnetic, or even go back further, some anger, load and reload. I found this to be a very dark album.
00:02:41
Speaker
Musically, I thought there's lots of minor chord changes, lots of dissonance in there. Very doomy. When I read the Metal Hammer review for it, they always put four fans off and a couple of bands, and they put Black Sabbath. And Black Sabbath are never a band musically I'd associate with Metallica. Through the genealogy of metal, we can see how we can put them in the same sentence, but in terms of actually comparing and saying, well, this band sounded like this band, I'd never put Sabbath and Metallica together.
00:03:11
Speaker
but this had a very doomy sound, a very heavy sound. And something you talked about about the albums, you loved how grungy it was in places. Yeah, and I love grungy, you guys. And I can just instantly hear grunge. I was like, oh yeah, that's so grungy. I love it. And it's just, it really worked well for me with all the doominess as well. Well, mixing it, mixing these two kinds of hybrid styles, I thought worked really well. And in terms you mentioned, the grunge, that really made me think of Load and Reload, because they were very kind of garagey, grungy albums.
00:03:40
Speaker
But you wouldn't think straight away load and reload when you think of this album. Some people would. I've spoken to a friend of mine who said that when he first heard this, he thought straight away of load and reload. And my issue of thought was, no. For me, because I mainly focused on the instrumental sections, I thought an Unjustice for All and Black album really
00:04:04
Speaker
Really heavy kind of deck metal riffs that really gave us a nice heaviness. But then going back and listening for a second and third time, you can hear parts of everything in there. So I thought it was really, really cool.
Track-by-Track Review Coming Soon
00:04:19
Speaker
So in terms of specific songs, what we're going to do is we're actually going to do a full album review track by track coming to you over the next couple of weeks. So keep an eye out for that. But did I like every song?
00:04:32
Speaker
I liked moments in every song. I thought every song had some really cool sections, be it an instrumental section, be it a verse, be it a chorus, where I thought, yes, this really works for me. But at the same time, there were sections in most of the songs where I thought, ah, you know, that didn't quite hit the mark for me. They could have changed. They could have done this. They should have gone to a chorus here. But yeah, that's just my opinion. What did you think? Did you like all the songs? Probably not all of them.
00:05:01
Speaker
But I do need another good listen, really, you know, because initially I just thought, yeah, I like parts like yourself, you know, I like parts of all the songs. There were some songs that I enjoyed more than others, but overall, yeah, I enjoyed most of the songs. One thing I think worked
00:05:25
Speaker
especially in the instrumental sections. To be honest, I found some of the choruses a bit underwhelming and some of the verses were a bit repetitive in terms of vocal lines, which you can talk about after. But I loved, I thought, every song, the instrumental sections in every song really hit the mark for me. Because like I said before, it really took me back to the And Justice for All sound, the Black album sound, just with these heavy riffs.
00:05:49
Speaker
Um, do you want to talk about the vocals now in terms of the chorus and the verses? Yeah. Well, let's just say we have to say that James sounds great. He sounds revived. Yeah. Sounds really good. So it's such raw sound. Absolutely love it. I couldn't believe, sorry, before you get into it, I just want to mention the song Chasing Light because the chorus in that was phenomenal. And he does a screen that I can only really sort of, it throws me back to ride the lightning and kill them all. He goes, man,
00:06:17
Speaker
They are mad, and I haven't heard him sort of scream like that in an album in ages, or at least not sounding that good. No, it's great.
00:06:27
Speaker
he aged like a good wine you know it's just brilliant um i think honestly like you said some phrasing is quite repetitive and that's melody writing as well here you know so some verse melodies are very repetitive and stuff but again i think that's the signature sound though this is what we have to remember here
00:06:48
Speaker
And this vocal phrasing contributes to that signature sound of this whole album. So I think this is, you know, it's part of it, really. I think the same can be said for Kirk Hammett, really, because he got a lot of stick after his album was released about his solo just sounding the same. A bit of whammy, some fast, dilly, dilly, dilly sections. But, you know, that's the Kirk Hammett sound. And I got to a point where I kind of thought, well, Metallica and Al Metallica, they don't need to be doing anything for anyone else.
00:07:17
Speaker
And if this is the way that their music is sounding, with James Hetfield repeating, not repeating, but making similar vocal phrases, and Kirk Hammett using the same characteristics in his solos, so be it. That's the Metallica sound. Now, having said what I just said, which is that I did enjoy, overall, I did enjoy every song.
Critique on Album Length
00:07:40
Speaker
Parts I'd changed, parts I didn't like, but overall I did enjoy it. I thought the album was too long,
00:07:47
Speaker
I thought 77 minutes is a long time. That's one hour and 17 minutes. And I've got nothing against the songs Too Far Gone and Room Full of Mirrors. Again, they all have their moments. But had I not loved Chasing Light so much, I think I'd have got bored because you have three, like I said, if I hadn't liked Chasing Light, it would have been Chasing Light, Too Far Gone and Room Full of Mirrors. I didn't think they were all necessary. I thought they were all long songs and sometimes less is more.
00:08:16
Speaker
And we've just summed up here how there was a good consistent quality of heavy riffage, good sort of grungy guitar lines in places, some speed metal stuff. And if you can do a job in an hour, why add 17 minutes more? And I think that's where a lot of the criticism has been recently, especially with the album. I don't see anyone having said the songs are all awful. What I have seen most people say is that the album's too long. And I think a good point for this is less is more. What do you think?
00:08:46
Speaker
No, I completely agree, I do. And some songs, I'm not gonna lie, I struggle to remember. Yeah, yeah, that's fair, yeah.
00:08:55
Speaker
but when you hear it it's odd because they're not memorable in the sense of like you said i couldn't tell you i couldn't sing you the two far gone chorus but i know when i listen to it i'll be like just like i said back then i like this part yeah this is a good verse we can appreciate it you know i think what saves the album and again we'll get into this way more in the track by track review is in the morata because it is such a different sounding song to the rest of the album isn't it so i think
Highlight on 'Inamorata'
00:09:21
Speaker
If anyone does start to get bored by the time Room Full of Mirrors is done, if you were to see Inna Murata, 11 minutes of what you've just heard, it could be boring. But Inna Murata is so different and so unique that it kind of is a really fresh and different ending to the album. But again, we'll get into that when we do the track by track review.
Closing and Listener Engagement
00:09:41
Speaker
Thank you so much you guys for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this video and please let us know your thoughts on the new Metallica album.
00:09:49
Speaker
That's right, yeah, and don't forget that we've got a dedicated podcast for this channel, so if you're too busy to sit and watch the video, then you get us on all your podcasting platforms. And as Dash said, let us know what you think about the album. What were your first thoughts on it, having just listened to it, and having now given it four or five more listens, are your thoughts any different to how they were at the start? Give us a like, a share, and subscribe to our channel for new videos. Have a metal day. Have a lovely day. We'll see you very soon.