Metallica have confirmed the title and release date for their forthcoming 12th studio album.

The record entitled ‘72 Seasons’ is due out on 14 April 2023 via the band’s own Blackened Recordings.

The release will be the band’s first full-length collection of new material since 2016s ‘Hardwired…To Self-Destruct’.

Clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track album will be available in various formats including 2LP 140g black vinyl and limited-edition variants, CD and digital.

Frontman James Hetfield commented, “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 American heavy metal icons have also revealed first single ‘Lux Æterna’ alongside a Tim Saccenti-directed music video.

WATCH HERE:

Metallica will embark on the M72 World Tour in 2023/2024, including a huge headline slot at Download Festival next summer.

Download 20th Anniversary 4 night special edition will take place on 08-11 June 2023 – tickets on sale now from Ticketmaster

Metallica ‘72 Season’ Full Album Tracklisting:

72 Seasons
Shadows Follow
Screaming Suicide
Sleepwalk My Life Away
You Must Burn!
Lux Æterna
Crown of Barbed Wire
Chasing Light
If Darkness Had a Son
Too Far Gone?
Room of Mirrors
Inamorata

Photo Credit: Tim Saccenti / PRESS