Metallica announce first new album in over six years 72 Seasons

"Lux Æterna" is the first taster of the group's upcoming 12th album, and lands with a Tim Saccenti-directed video.

The track will appear on 72 Seasons, Metallica's first album of new material since 2016's Hardwired...To Self-Destruct. The upcoming album will be their 12th, and will feature 12 songs in total.

James Hetfield says of the title, "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."

Tracklist:

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

On top of announcing 72 Seasons, Metallica have announced their M72 world tour, which will run for nearly two years and will see them play two nights in each city with separate setlists and support acts.