Metallica released their eleventh album, 72 Seasons, last week, and it’s made a hell of a dent on the charts: 72 Seasons has debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums and Vinyl Albums Charts.

Their eighth #1 in Australia, from Metallica (aka The Black Album) in 1991, which has been certified platinum 13 times in Australia, to their live album S&M2 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the band has enjoyed a string of #1 success on the ARIA Albums Chart.  

Metallica also took the top spot on the Vinyl Chart (despite the expensive prices of 72 Seasons on vinyl), beating Kisschasy’s United Paper People ahead of their Australian tour, Taylor Swift’s 1989, Vance Joy’s Live At The Sydney Opera House, and Thornhill’s The Dark Pool.

On the albums chart, Metallica beat country music star Morgan Wallen with One Thing At A Time, Midnights by Taylor Swift, Gettin’ Old by Luke Combs, and The Highlights by The Weeknd.

“More than any other Metallica album, 72 Seasons worships the art of the riff,” we said in our 72 Seasons album review. “There are no ballads and no clean guitars until the last six minutes of the album - a very deliberate choice. 

“While their ’80s classics were intricately composed and arranged, and their ’90s albums more compact, 72 Seasons is absolutely packed with a series of riffs, counter-riffs and variations, to the point where they drive the songs even more than James Hetfield’s vocals. Always his greatest foil, Lars Ulrich’s less-is-more approach to shaping those riffs hasn’t been this effective since St. Anger; it sometimes feels like he’s summoning the midpoint between Seven Nation Army and Black Sabbath.” You can read the full album review here.

Hetfield described the album as “72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves.

"The concept that we were told 'who we are' by our parents. A possible pigeonholing around what kind of personality we are. 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 a reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry."

You can listen to 72 Seasons here.