Amph What Album Did You Just Hear?

D-Day by Agust D

This is a Korean rap album that is greatly enhanced by its two music videos, which are the second and third parts of a trilogy. The third one suddenly went into very personal memories of the artist and thus got restricted on YouTube for suicide and self harm content but.... For the best, it's heavy stuff.

Anyway the album is amazing and I'll be posting a full review soon.

 

Metallica: 72 Seasons

Time for the epilogue.

I've been sitting on this album for a little while as, at the time of release, there were a lot of snap reactions to the record. To me, the initial reactions were too quick. "Best album since XYZ", "Return to form", "Metallica do it again" etc...It wasn't that I disagreed with these perspectives but, rather, I actually had no perspective to offer. Clocking in at around 77 minutes, 72 Seasons is a lot to take in during the first few listens. it's a densely arranged set of songs where, as with Hardwired To Self-Destruct, there are no ballads or acoustic songs. In fact, 72 Seasons may as well have been titled ReLoad To Self-Destruct because the band's latest album is precisely a sequel album to what we were listening to back in 2016. For me, that's a strength which underpins the inherent (and frustrating) flaw to this album because the opportunity and the promise for the band to move forward was available.

The first real taste of this album that provided a hint of what could have been was back in 2020 when the world was in a state of lockdown. Metallica kept themselves busy at home by writing riffs and lyrics, but also used that time to rework a beloved classic, 'Blackened':



It's strange that a Metallica album has gone almost two full decades with no acoustic whatsoever to offer because Blackened 2020 provides some worthy ideas as to where the band could take their sound. This is before mentioning their numerous appearances at Neil Young's acoustic "Bridge School Benefit" shows, along with the tempo and acoustic experiments heard on S&M2. So, I went into 72 Seasons expecting a few curveballs because of what was hinted at in the lead-up to the album, not to mention that it had been so long since the band had toyed with their sound (notwithstanding Lulu). But, it should be said that 72 Seasons is absolutely not Death Magnetic. It is a much stronger album than Death Magnetic because the band are not blandly re-writing or focusing on one particular era of their heyday. As with Hardwired To Self-Destruct, 72 Seasons is a culmination of eras which combines the raw ferocity of Kill 'Em All, the intricate arrangements of Master Of Puppets and AJFA while featuring substantial slews of groove as heard during their records in the 1990s. 72 Seasons does have variety, but the sound of the record is limited to the boundaries of their previous record. This in itself is an oddity because unlike the making of their previous record, the entire band have contributed to the writing. If you recall, Kirk Hammett had lost his mobile phone in the lead-up to recording Hardwired To Self-Destruct where all of his recorded riffs were lost and, as a result, was given no songwriting credits on that album.

For 72 Seasons, following a long tenure of COVID isolation, having sat a second stint in rehab, along with the collapse of his marriage, and finally, the fact that he wanted the creative aspects of Metallica to be more democratic, James Hetfield opened the floor to the band to contribute ideas to the record (saved at timestamp):



The opportunity for the band to offer a more diverse record than they have in a while was available in plain sight, but somehow the potential remained hidden. Many of the tracks from this album was born less out of riffs and ideas that were exchange during zoom calls in lockdown and, instead, through jamming sessions once the band reconvened in person to commence production on the album (saved at timestamp):



It could be to do with the fact that they are working, once again, with Greg Fidelman who is working in the same studio with the same mixing crew. But, it should matter less given how the band themselves have changed during the turbulent half decade that has transpired. For a band who seem to have survived COVID with a renewed appreciation of family that comes with being a band for just over forty years, there does seem to be a working through the motions on this record in the way that it feels less in the moment than Hardwired To Self-Destruct. The band have, as Kirk says, learned to champion their differences. But, I can't help it wonder about the level of group-think on this record:



Once again, the enduring bad habit of overly long arrangements plagues this record as it has done since St. Anger. The opening title track, which was released as a single, runs out of steam at around the four-minute mark and expands to a full seven minutes and forty seconds with repeat riffing and no change to the 'Fuel'-like tempo. 'Chasing Light', 'You Must Burn' and 'Shadows Follow' are weighed down by their length, each exceeding six minutes, and would best hold their strengths by having their length pared down by a couple of minutes each.

All of which makes it very odd that the album's closing track 'Inamorata', is my favourite from the record but also the band's longest ever song (eleven minutes, twelve seconds). 'Inamorata' doesn't feel anywhere near its length and, for me, it's to do with the heavy doom-metal like groove that harkens back to the closing tracks on Load and Reload. Lyrically, however, James brings the pain from the lyrics heard on St. Anger but with greater nuance and maturity than we heard on that album:

Welcome, won't you come inside?
Meet the ghosts where I reside
Despite how they're abusin' me
Lonely I will never be Comfort in the hell I know
...
Misery, she needs me
Oh, oh, but I need her more Misery, she loves me
Oh, oh, but I love her more Misery, she kills me

'Inamorata' is as hard hitting as it is groove laden sludge. It's both a strength and a frustration that the album ends on this note because it's just one indication of how the band could have further explored their sound following the triumph of Hardwired To Self-Destruct. 72 Seasons is at its best when it's at its grooviest, as heard on another seminal cut 'Crown of Barbed Wire':

So tight, this crown of barbed wire It's destiny I wear
It splits the skin to the soul
This jagged wreath I bear

This rusted empire I own Bleed as I rust on this throne
Pierce me with torment
And all the rust that I own

The groove-heavy approach does show its limits in some areas, particularly on 'Sleepwalk My Life Away' which is a slightly faster 'Enter Sandman' with a more pronounced bass line. Where the groove stuff does become more interesting, however, is on 'You Must Burn' which features all four members sharing a dissonant Sabbath-like harmony over the top of a bluesy 'Carpe Diem Baby' meets 'Memory Remains' style of sludge metal. 'If Darkness Had A Son', another single released prior to the album's release, is also a groove-heavy track but one that would have benefitted from a reduced length.

It should be apparent that on 72 Seasons, James is revisiting some of the soul searching and soul bearing as he did on St. Anger. But, once again, Hetfield's raw bloodletting is significantly less the off-the-cuff and knee-jerking expression as heard on the 2003 album. Instead, where St. Anger's lyrics were the sound of a band falling apart, 72 Seasons (the album being named after the first 18 years of a person's life) is the realisation of strength flowing through pain. Where St. Anger threw in the towel (Phil mainly), 72 Seasons goes bleak but not without a glimmer of hope, as heard on 'Screaming Suicide':

Curse another day
Spirit locked away
Punish and deprive
Hate to be awake
Living a mistake
More dead than alive
Then a voice appears
Whisper in your ears
"You are good enough"
Throwing down a rope
A lifeline of hope
Never give you up

My favourite lyrics on the entire album goes to 'Room Of Mirrors' which sounds like it was born directly out of Hetfield's return to rehab and the satisfaction of having survived it again, in addition to the morass of life itself:

Would you criticise, scrutinise, stigmatise my pain?
Would you summarise, patronise, classify insane?
So I stand here before you
You might judge, you might just bury me
Or you might set me free

Musically, the album does leave you demanding more innovation but lyrically it runs deep and raw in the way St. Anger would have liked to, only for the album's concept and band mindset to stand in its way. The album does wear a like 'Lux Aeterna' (another Hardwired/My Apocalypse retread) and throwaways like 'Chasing Light' or 'Too Far Gone'.

72 Seasons is good. It's solid work and, as with Hardwired, the sound of a band playing in the moment rather than directly replicating what is expected of them. There is a noticeable maturity and focus on this album, but it's also being approached with a palpable sense of precaution. The four members of Metallica may be relating to one another, but I can't help it think something has been lost if some of the creative recklessness has been lost along the way. Perhaps this is something which comes with age but, at this stage of their career, Metallica almost seem to know what type of record they want to create when they go into the studio. The tracks may be jam driven, but for the hundreds of riff ideas that are said to exist, just how many of those ideas truly throw the band off balance? For now, very few given the confident, dependable and, often, predictable nature of this record.

I had a funny moment when playing some tracks off this album to my father, who is not into metal but loves rock. In particular, I played him 'Inamorata'. He sat there, bobbed his head, turned up the volume and, after two minutes, looks at me and says "you know what? I like it, but I don't. You know why? It's too clean." He only had to hear two minutes of the album to get it. Perhaps more than the critics who gave this record five stars.

3.5 out of 5

 

@DebonaireNerd - Interestingly, I agree with a lot of what you said about the album, but I think I rate it higher / like it more. Having said that, though, I am only about halfway through really digesting it.

 

The album is a lot to take in, which is why I really held off my review.

Again, how the critics arrived at this being a five star album where (I assume) they only held their advance copies for two or three days puzzles me.

I only had around two or three standout tracks in my first three or four listens, and one of those were the singles that had already been released prior to the album's launch.

EDIT: one thing I absolutely forgot to comment on - James' voice! On this record, James vocals are among the best I have heard him since Load/Reload. Not because they are polished and smooth, but because there is notable crackle and raspiness in his voice. It sounds great. I'm glad he is embracing the strengths of his weathered voice because it sounds great. Please never smooth it out with autotune.

 

Metallica - 72 Seasons

 

Listening to Band on the Run. This and Ram are really good McCartney albums.

 

Band On The Run is one of those rare albums that truly answers to the hype.

Ram is classic too and deserves way more love; it only seems to be a fan favourite.

 

Metallica - Hardwired...to Self-Destruct. I actually prefer this record to their latest.

 

I enjoy McCartney’s solo offerings. But for me, nothing touches George’s All Things Must Pass.

 

Well yeah, that's basically two full albums worth of pent-up songwriting frustration* from a top tier pop artist exploding out at once, that's a very hard situation to even replicate.


*Also a bunch of guitar jams, y'know, for the hell of it I guess.

 

Paul, George, and John (sorry Ringo) all had some good solo stuff, but to me they were just much better together as the Beatles. The sum was definitely greater than the parts IMO.

 

Ringo had a good album, albeit it was the one all the other Beatles helped him out on.

 

72 Seasons update: I think I can now say that this is probably my favorite Metallica album since the Black Album.

 

Parius - The Signal Heard Throughout Space

Sci-fi/space opera prog metal. Really really good from start to finish and that cover art just rules.

 

I recently found out that The Sword disbanded late last year, so I've been listening to songs from their first four albums. I don't have their other stuff that came out after these, but from the samples I've listened to the other two albums and the compilations are just not as good as these. I also think they probably kind of burned out for a while before making it official last year. At any rate, these albums are so good... just great classic sounding heavy metal / hard rock, with so many good riffs.

Age of Winters
Gods of the Earth
Warp Riders
Apocryphon

 

Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman. I’ve listened to it six or seven times since it came out yesterday. It’s great. Much better than Villains.

 

REO Speedwagon Hi Infidelity
Still sounds great after all these years.

 

That is an immaculately produced album. I was never a huge fan, but there are three or four songs on there that are legit pop-rock masterpieces.

 

Teenager of the Year - Frank Black

 

All are brilliant but I'm very fond of Warp Riders and just look at that artwork! It's ashame they broke up

 

Helmet - Meantime

Released 31 years ago today. That was the summer right after I graduated high school and before I started college. I kept seeing Helmet on MTV, and I quickly got this and the album that came out before it on CD. That following September, soon after school started, Helmet was opening for Faith No More in an outdoor concert on my college campus (The University of Georgia, in Athens). That was the first of multiple Helmet shows / concerts that I went to.

 

Porcupine_Tree Closure/Continuation



Gave it a good listen last night and best song on the album IMO is 'Herd Culling', classic PT, I just love it!

 

Listening to this again lately, and still really liking it.