In a new interview with Steffan Chirazi of Metallica's fan-club magazine So What!, Lars Ulrich reflected about the relevance of the band's latest album 72 Seasons – after a few months of its release – and how their previous album Hardwired… To Self Destruct paved the way for its successor.
Ulrich praised 72 Seasons as a "fresh, weighty, and cohesive" album, and said that he is still happy with the choices that were made during its creation. He also noted that every Metallica album is related to the previous one, and that 72 Seasons is no exception.
'I think every Metallica record has its own journey, its own story, its own path forward. They're all unique, and I think you accept all of them. Now with 72 Seasons being out a couple, what, four or five months, the record's still very fresh to me. I like what I'm hearing. I don't listen to it very often, but just six weeks ago, when we started the North American run in New York, there were a couple more songs that we wanted to learn. So I listened to those songs and listened to the record. I don't think I'd heard it in six weeks, but it still sounded very fresh, weighty, and cohesive. I'm happy with what I'm hearing, I'm appreciative, and I like the choices that were made.'
Ulrich also spoke about the relationship between 72 Seasons and Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, saying that every record is related to the previous one, and that Hardwired was a really good jumping-off point for 72 Seasons.
"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. There was a lot of uncertainty; the band was trying to figure out its place. And how do we pick the pieces up again? "
"And then, during that awful and unprecedented time in lockdown, how do we make music? How do we connect to our fans and to our friends and family out there? How do we make a difference as Metallica? And that eventually led us to start writing songs and to do the stuff remotely and through computers and Zoom sessions, etc., etc., etc. Then, ending up here at HQ, masked and under many Covid restrictions."
"Eventually, as things got more and more 'along,' the process became more and more normalized, whatever that means in the context of making a record. So, in hindsight, now the record's been out for five months, I'm happy with it. 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."
