Metallica share powerful new single ‘Screaming Suicide’
Metallica has unveiled the latest single from their upcoming album 72 Seasons. ‘Screaming Suicide’ is the second track lifted from the band’s eleventh studio album following ‘Lux Æterna’. The new song has been released alongside a video directed by Tim Saccenti.
In a recent statement by the band, Metallica discussed their desire to address “the taboo word suicide” in this new single. “The intention is to communicate about the darkness we feel inside,” they said. “It’s ridiculous to think we should deny that we have these thoughts. At one point or another, I believe most people have thought about it. To face it is to speak the unspoken. If it’s a human experience, we should be able to talk about it. You are not alone.”
The band’s first album since 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct, 72 Seasons was announced back in November, at which point the band revealed plans for an extensive European and North American tour for 2023 and 2024. The album is slated for April 14th, 2023.
Discussing the inspiration behind the album’s title, frontman James Hetfield said: “72 seasons. 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,” Hetfield said. “I think the most interesting part of this is the continued study of those core beliefs and how it affects our perception of the world today. Much of our adult experience is a reenactment or reaction to these childhood experiences. Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”
During a conversation with Howard Stern, drummer Lars Ulrich said he was surprised the album hadn’t been leaked already: “We’ve been working on a new album for the last year, year-and-a-half – our Covid lockdown record,” he told the radio host. “And the one thing that we’ve done all through that is for the first time in our career, we never really talked about it. So, rather than, ‘Hey, there’s a new record’ and countdowns and, ‘Guess what’s coming your way?’ and all that kind of shit, we’ve been tight-fucking-lipped about it. We thought for sure this thing would leak. It hasn’t fucking leaked.”
In December, Metallica performed a cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Borderline’ and bought out St. Vincent to perform ‘Nothing Else Mattes’ for their annual Helping Hands charity concert. You can check out the band’s latest single below.
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