Lars Ulrich Says Hardwired and 72 Seasons Have “Aged Really, Really Well”
A lot can be said about the last two Metallica albums — I should know, I wrote our review on their latest, 72 Seasons. But they’re still relatively new enough additions to an already impressive discography that it might be a bit too soon to look back on their place in the complete lineup. Yet that’s not stopping drummer Lars Ulrich from pre-emptively trying to control the narrative and let people know those records were good.
During a chat with the band’s own So What? magazine, Ulrich said he looked fondly on both records, saying that now that everyone’s past the “honeymoon period” with those records, people can now effectively see those albums for what they are.
“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’ve said this many times: there’s what I call the ‘honeymoon period,’ which is when you make a record and finish a record, you put that record in your back pocket, and then you go off into the world. And at some point, you listen to that record again, and at some point, you start having some questions about the choices that were made. [For] different records at different times, that honeymoon period can be short, can be long, whatever. So, four to five months later, I still don’t have a lot of questions. I’m happy with what I’m hearing, I’m appreciative, and I like the choices that were made.
“The interesting thing about this record is also – and this kind of dawned upon me as I was doing interviews for 72 Seasons in the spring – that every record, through no choice of your own, is always related to the previous record. If you like the previous record, that affects where you’re going with the next record. If you don’t like the previous record, that affects where you’re going with the next record. So, in terms of the lineage of the records, the next record is always tethered to the previous record in some way, shape, or form.”
Released earlier this year, 72 Seasons was a largely alright record, with some parts that definitely felt like they overstayed their welcome. Still, it’s better than St. Anger or Lulu, so it’ll always have that distinction.
As for Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, Ulrich said that record “aged really, really well” and that it was a great stepping stone that got the band to 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.”
So yeah, it’s great to see he’s happy with the last two albums. While there are certainly tons of people out there that might disagree with him, I think I largely follow what he’s saying. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section.
