Zoom has been credited for keeping students and teachers connected, the judicial system working and fitness classes jumping. You can add a Metallica album to that list.
The hard rockers met weekly over their computers to stay connected during the pandemic, a standing get-together that eventually became a songwriting factory. The first step was an acoustic version of their song “Blackened.”
“It proved to us that, yes, we can at least do something remotely while we’re all still separated,” says guitarist Kirk Hammett. “That grew into trying to get riffs together for the new album though Zoom.”
Six or seven of those song sketches ended up on 72 Seasons, the band’s 12th full-length album, out Friday. It’s the sound of a band not slowing down, despite singer and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich turning 60 this year and Hammett already on the other side of that milestone. Bassist Robert Trujillo is the baby, at just 58.
“It ended up working really fantastic,” says Hetfield. “I know what we do. I know what we do best. I know what we’ve done before. But there’s also an artist in me that wants to keep evolving and trying to do different stuff.”