It is what it is. At this stage in the game not one single person in the world cares what anyone else thinks of the new Metallica album, least of all the band. Everybody’s made their minds up already, and most of those that have, have already bought the damn thing, but I’m going to shout into the void anyway because that’s what we do. So here goes.

72 Seasons is a very good album indeed.

It’s better than Lulu. It’s better than Hardwired and Death Magnetic, and pound for pound it’s better than both the Load albums. Which, in the final washup, makes this record the best thing Metallica have recorded in thirty two years.

I’ll go further: The track Lux Æterna might well be the best thing the band has come up with since Master Of Puppets, a glorious Motörhead/Kill ‘Em All mashup that literally rips the careworn patina from your body and lands you squarely in the middle of 1983 whether you like it or not. It’s absolutely glorious, and there are other moments here, notably the grandiose Sleepwalk My Life Away, If Darkness Had A Son (with it’s recurrent quasi-Killing Joke feel) and the surprisingly jaunty Room Of Mirrors that also come close to putting the band squarely back into their salad days, creatively.

That’s obviously a huge feat, given what this band have already achieved, and what they have bequeathed as legacy to the heavy metal World. They owe us nothing, and to come up with something as vital and vibrant as 72 Seasons this deep into their career is nothing short of miraculous.

Closing track Inamorata says it all; Eleven minutes in length, yes – but unlike some bands of their ilk churning out ‘epic’ material like this, never with a feeling of bloat, much less ‘for the sake of it’. In 2023, no other classic metal band handles the unwieldy with as much deftness as Metallica.

Hetfield is Hetfield, but more so. Gratifyingly the same can’t be said for Ulrich, who reigns in his more florid instincts to give a superb, tight demonstration of how to propel a big metal album. Hammett does the required wah-wah freakout on request, but in the context of the album is relatively anonymous, magnificent effort on Inamorata notwithstanding, whilst Trujillo delivers in his supporting role with some truly titanic basswork, bookending the album with superb playing on opening track 72 Seasons and that closing, Sabbath-meets-Priest festivus of steel.

Metallica v.2023: You need them in your life.

72 Seasons is out now.