Metallica announces 12th studio album and upcoming world tour

Metallica is making music and going on tour again.

In a press release posted on the band’s website, they announced the upcoming release of “72 Seasons,” their 12th studio album, and the record’s accompanying world tour, titled “M72.” The album’s first single, “Lux Æterna,” has already dropped.

While Metallica has re-released some of their classic songs, as well as a live album with the San Francisco Symphony and commissioned cover albums with singers like Phoebe Bridgers and Weezer, this is their first full-length album with new music since the 2016 release of “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.”

“72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves,” James Hetfield, lead singer of Metallica said about the name of the album. “The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are.

He continued: “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.”

Metallica announced they will be releasing a new album in 2023, with the first single already getting positive feedback from fans.
(Photo by NDZ/Star Max/GC Images)

METALLICA PAYS TRIBUTE TO ‘STRANGER THINGS’ DURING ‘MASTER OF PUPPETS’ AT LOLLAPALOOZA

Metallica recently had a resurgence in popularity when their song “Master of Puppets” was featured in a season four episode of the hit Netflix show, “Stranger Things.” Although the song was originally released in 1986, it went to number one on the iTunes Rock Chart, was 29 on the Tunes chart for all music, and entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time.

“It was another one of those ‘it has to be this song,’ moments,” Nora Felder, the show’s music supervisor, told Variety. “This part of the story was anticipated to be a pivotal and especially hair-raising scene in which Eddie heroically stood tall for the fight of his life. I believe the Duffer Brothers felt that playing ‘Master of Puppets’ throughout the extended scene was the clear choice. No other song was discussed further, and we jumped in to clear it straight away.”

Along with announcing their new album, the band also announced a tour, “M72,” to accompany the album. On their world tour, the band will travel to 22 cities, putting on over 40 shows.

The band also announced they will be going on tour for the first time since 2016, traveling to 22 cities worldwide.
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen)

As part of the tour, Metallica will be performing for two nights in each city, promising performances that will feature different set lists each night. In order to get the full experience, fans will have the option to buy tickets for both nights or just one, with fans under 16 getting a discounted ticket price.

Two-day tickets are set to go on sale Friday, December 2, and single day tickets are set to go on sale Jan. 20. The pre-sale is expected to begin Wednesday, Nov. 30.

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A portion of the proceeds from the tickets will go to the All Within My Hands foundation, which was started by the band members themselves in 2017. The foundation works towards making positive changes in communities by assisting food banks, through Feeding America, and creating their own initiatives, such as Metallica Scholars, to promote education.