In a recent interview with So What!, Lars Ulrich talked about Metallica’s ’72 Seasons,’ mentioning the period following James Hetfield’s return to rehab in 2019 and its influence on the band’s path. Revealing whether he ever thought Hetfield’s situation might cause the band to be over, he said:
“As you’re going through a process, there are two parts to it. There’s the ‘going through and moving forward,’ and then there is the ‘sitting and talking about it two or three years later’ and trying to figure out what spin you’re going to put on it. Those are two different kinds of things, so to walk through every emotion, or every up or down that happened to you at this point or that point, I mean, I don’t know if I have enough of a specific memory.”
The drummer detailed the band members’ response to the vocalist’s condition:
“What James went through at the tail end of ’19 into ’20 was something where it really felt like I – and the rest of the guys in the band – had to give him the space that he needed, had to really take a step back, and just suspend everything that was on the table. We needed to do that for our friend and for our bandmate and partner.”
Touching on the Covid lockdown in 2020, he explained how they moved on:
“Then, slowly, the pieces started coming back together in the spring of ’20, and then everything got side-swiped by the horrific [events] of Covid and the lockdown. So, as we were giving the inner-band dynamics the time that they needed, we realized that there was no need to rush anything. And at the same time, like I said before, [we were] trying to figure out: how does Metallica make a difference, how can music make a difference, what can we do?”
After a two-year period with no full shows, Metallica hopped back on the stage with the M72 World Tour in Spring 2023. Starting with a show in Amsterdam in April, the band’s ongoing trek followed the release of its eleventh studio album.
Recovering From The Lockdown
Given the 2023 record’s background, So What! interviewer Steffan Chirazi asked Ulrich about its creation process through the lockdown. In answer, the drummer revealed how each of the band’s albums affected the next one and went on:
“I have made no secret of the fact that ‘Hardwired,’ certainly for the most part from ’16/’17 forward, has been a record that, in my ears, has aged really, really well. So, when we started the process of what became ’72 Seasons,’ there was no radical attempt to alter the course forward because ‘Hardwired’ felt like a really good jumping-off point. Obviously, the parameters were different in that we were in lockdown.”
Metallica adapted to the pandemic conditions by working on the writing and recording of ’72 Seasons’ with computers and Zoom sessions. The finished product hit the shelves on April 14, 2023, months after releasing the first single, ‘Lux Æterna.’
So, during the chat, Ulrich said that he was happy with the result, adding:
“We’ve played eight of these songs live, [and they’re] super fun to play. I think all eight songs that we played live are connecting with the audience, with the fans, maybe a few of them slightly at a deeper level than others. We’re digging what we’re doing, and as I said, the easy way to sum it up is that there are no radical red flags.”
Currently, Metallica is gearing up to perform a few more US dates in November before hitting the road for Europe in May 2024.
