It’s a very powerful concept, and we were just like, ‘No, this is strong.’ I don’t know that James necessarily wanted to go there, but we united and said it was going to be best for this album.” COLLABORATIVE ALBUM “You’re learning how to grow into that, and deal with things that are difficult at a young age. “There’s also loss and heartache,” continues Robert. Of course, there’s also another side to those first 18 years. I remember playing backyard parties when I was 16, and it was as powerful as playing in front of thousands of people in a stadium. That can be an incredible experience in itself. “You’re discovering a lot of things, whether it be love, heartbreak or even learning to play music. You can look at it the way he does, like, ‘Why do we want to look back? Why don’t we look to the future?’ But for some of us, it was like, ‘No, your first 18 years can be a very powerful journey.’ I mean, you can look at your first 18 years in a lot of different ways. He may even have been more against it in some ways. “James presented it, but I don’t think he had it in mind to dominate the album and be this theme. “Well, that particular concept is very powerful,” replies Robert. The central lyrical concept of 72 Seasons is fascinating, with Hetfield explaining that it’s based around the “first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves.” At what point did the idea emerge, and how important is a unifying concept to a Metallica album? “He said, ‘Check it out and tell me what you think.’ Our producer got involved an helped us get a creative flow going, which then evolved into us saying, ‘Let’s write some original songs and get to work.’ Lars started listening to riffs and putting things together, and that obviously had to happen from home – we had to re-ignite our home studios.” But I think this album really kicked off with ‘Blackened 2020’, an acoustic version of ‘Blackened’ that James sent us as a surprise. You’re never know what you’re going to get, so we always have recording gear on-hand. I always say James Hetfield turns the volume knob up, or tunes his guitar, and he’s coming up with an incredible riff. “Ideas are formulated over time and take shape from jams in various rehearsal rooms. I feel that’s an ingredient in this whole album: we went the extra mile to create this music. When we actually got in a room together, we really appreciated and celebrated it – it just made the experience very special. “But I believe the challenge helped propel the creative juices. “Obviously, in the beginning, having to work extra-hard to create from afar was a challenge,” says Trujillo in his laidback Californian drawl. It’s the band first LP since 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct – a full seven-year gap, although they have a well-established tendency to take their time between albums.Ĭertainly, Covid and frontman James Hetfield re-entering rehab in late 2019 didn’t help matters, but I wonder: how much of the delay was attributable to those issues, and how much to Metallica’s possible perfectionist tendencies? The metal superstars are gearing up for the release of their 11th album 72 Seasons, another pulverising collection of snarling riffs and pile-driver drumming, which is guaranteed to maintain their position among the world’s premier rock acts. The 58-year-old is in the middle of a hectic schedule: having got off the plane from Nashville – where he’d travelled to see his son’s band perform – he’s spending the morning doing promo, before heading off to Metallica rehearsals in the afternoon. Eventually, I get a message from Trujillo’s assistant – whose name, remarkably, is Jeff Bass – informing me that he’s running late and that he’ll be calling shortly.Īs I continue to patiently watch France’s clinical dismantling of the Netherlands in the Euro qualifiers, eventually the call arrives and I’m put through to an apologetic Trujillo in LA. Quarter-of-an-hour after my phoner with Metallica’s bassist, Robert Trujillo, was due to commence, there’s still no sign of a call.
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