Heavy metal band Metallica has gotten a lot of hate in the media for its latest album “72 Seasons.” But does it really deserve it? As a Metallica fan, I’d say no, although it is clearly not their best album, probably falling at best in the middle of the pack of their 11 albums.

Founded by James Hetfield, Metallica is known for its melodic, intense, and meaningful music. They share a  heavy metal genre with a few other notorious bands you may know like Slipknot, Black Sabbath, and Slayer.

Metallica released “72 Seasons,” on April 14. The album’s tracklist consists of twelve songs and this is their 11th studio album, coming just seven years after “Hardwired to Self-Destruct.”

So why is “72 Seasons” so generic in comparison to their other albums? The first track on the list is the eponymous “72 Seasons.” The song is over seven and a half minutes long with the first 90 seconds being all instrumental (probably the best part of the song). Portraying feelings regarding how one processes childhood events, the song is not horrible, but does not seem worthy of being a “career changing” song such as “One” or “For Whom The Bell Tolls.” At best, it is a forgettable 4/10.

Track two on the album is “Shadows Follow.” The song begins with a pretty heavy mix of drums and guitar for the first 54 seconds with lyrics speaking of anger or sadness with lines like “Hanging by a thread as I play dead” and “Facing my demons, now I know/If I run, still my shadows follow.” This song is not among the most popular on this album, but I found it meaningful so I’d rate it a 7/10.

Next on the list is “Screaming Suicide” Filled with hate and energy, the song grabs the listener’s attention. Drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Kirk Hammett definitely help bring back the old Metallica feelings with their guitar riffs and intense drums. Still, the lyrics of the song need to be changed because they do not match the actual tempo of the song itself. Overall, I rate this song a 6/10.

“Sleepwalk My Life Away” features multiple, smooth breakdowns with the drums and periodic pauses for the instrumentals to make a full comeback. Lyrically speaking, the words do not match the flow of the song quite as well as I would have first imagined, but they still follow the theme this album seems to follow. I rate this song a 5/10.

“You Must Burn” has to be my least favorite so far on the album with vocals and lyrics that sound super choppy and do not match at all. It disappointed me more than anything, so this is one to skip unless you just want to listen to the guitar riffs. I rate this a 1/10.

The next song on the list is “Lux Æterna.” Right at the start you are hit with an intense opening from the drums and guitar. This one most definitely feels like it could be aired in a superhero movie. I adore this song and can see why it has earned its title as one of the most listened-to songs on this track. Definitely a 10/10.

“Crown of Barbed Wire,” “Chasing Light,” and “If Darkness Had a Son,” are the next three songs on this album. These three songs felt very similar to each other. The beat pattern and lyrics did not really speak to me as much as I had wished. Even though “If Darkness Had a Son” is one of the most listened-to songs on this album, it was not great and I believe it did not earn that title. It was pretty sloppy. There is not much to say about them but they definitely could have been better. I rate each of these a 3.5/10.

“Too Far Gone” is the 10th track on “72 Seasons.” I did not like this song at all. The instruments and lyrics were very choppy and immediately made this song the worst on here. The concept was there but it was not put into play correctly. I rate this song a 1/10.

The next song is “Room of Mirrors.” This song was not bad. I would have expected this song to be one of the more popular but, unfortunately, it did not get as much love as it should have gotten. This song is just over five and a half minutes long. The lyrics were a bit annoying but the actual music was pretty nice to listen to. I rate this song a 8.5/10.

“Inamorata” is the very last on this list and I absolutely love it. The lyrics and every part of this song just flow very well together. This is actually the band’s longest song ever recorded; it is over eleven minutes of just pure euphoria.

Overall, I give “72 Seasons” a 6.5/10. There were few songs that genuinely caught my attention, but I just think Metallica can do better.