Metallica release If Darkness Had A Son, the third single from their upcoming album
The new single follows the release of Lux Æterna and Screaming Suicide earlier this year.
Image: NDZ/ Star Max via Getty
Metallica have released the third single from their upcoming album 72 Seasons, If Darkness Had A Son.
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Following the release of Lux Æterna and Screaming Suicide earlier this year, the third single from Metallica’s upcoming record is a seven-minute-long track that veers more into alternative metal than the all-out thrash of the previous two releases.
James Hetfield’s vocals don’t make an appearance until nearly two minutes into the track, with chunky guitars and drums driving the song along until a solo from Kirk Hammett brings us back into well-tread Metallica territory.
Watch the music video for If Darkness Had A Son below.
Hetfield has previously explained that the album’s title refers to the number of seasons we experience in the first 18 years of our lives. “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,” he explained, adding, “Much of our adult experience is reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
The record will be released on 14 April, and will be the first full-length record with all-new material from the band since 2016’s Hardwired… To Self Destruct.
Tickets for the band’s 2023/24 world tour dates in support of 72 Seasons are now on sale. The controversial Pantera reunion, as well as Architects, Five Finger Death Punch, Mammoth WVH and Ice Nine Kills are among the acts set to support Metallica on different dates, with a portion of proceeds from every ticket sold will go to the band’s All Within My Hands foundation.