Metallica will release its 12th studio album, 72 Seasons, on 4/14 via its Blackened Recordings and follow it up with a 46-concert world tour from April 2023 through September 2024.

Produced by Greg Fidelman with James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich, the album is Metallica’s first full-length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. The first single, “Lux Æterna,” was released today (11/28).

Hetfield explained the album title thus: “The first 18 years of our lives, which form our true or false selves. The concept that we're 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 they affect our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is a re-enactment of or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”

For Metallica’s M72 World Tour, promoted by Live Nation, the QPrime-managed quartet will play two nights in each city with two completely different set lists and supporting lineups. The outing will also be distinguished by a new, in-the-round design that relocates the famed Metallica Snake Pit to center stage.

The tour will start in Europe, then take two runs through North America. The first opens 8/4 & 6 at East Rutherford, N.J.’s MetLife Stadium and includes a stop at L.A.’s Sofi Stadium 8/25 & 27. The 2024 run starts 8/2 & 4 in Foxborough, Mass., and wraps in Mexico City 9/20 & 22 and 9/27 & 29.

Two-day tickets go on sale Friday (12/2), with the option of pre-ordering 72 Seasons on vinyl and/or CD. Single-day tickets will be available beginning 1/20. A portion of proceeds from every ticket sold will go to the band’s All Within My Hands foundation.