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It's been such a massive 2022 for Ghost, Revolver's easy pick for Band of the Year. Yet, despite the Swedish occult-rock troupe's AMA wins, MLB first pitches, headlining arena tours and viral TikToks, the biggest heavy-metal news of 2022 came from an entirely different source: Metallica, who dropped their first song in six years, the rollicking "Lux Æterna," in late November.
When we recently interviewed Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge about Papa Emeritus and the Ghouls being named our Band of the Year, we had to ask his thoughts on the song that shook the rock universe. Not surprisingly, considering his trad-metal heart and the old-school bent of "Lux Æterna," he approves.
"I was as surprised as everyone else, I believe, when that came out of nowhere," Forge tells us. "I thought it was cool. I like every time that they come back and they embrace a little bit more of their speed, their weight. I liked it."
In keeping with Forge's evaluation, Metallica's James Hetfield has described "Lux Æterna" as "an upbeat, kind of fast and joyous song." "Really indicative of New Wave of British [Heavy] Metal stuff, so kind of a harkening-back-to-Eighties kind of riff," he added. "It's just fun and makes me move. It was fun making the video, fun recording a song that comes out really easy, that was a real easy song to write and to perform, like I said, very much like the early Eighties for us."
Of the song's meaning, Hetfield explained: "There's been a lot of darkness in my life and in our career and things that have happened with us, but always having a sense of hope, always having the light that is in that darkness… Without darkness, there is no light, and being able to focus a little more on the light in life instead of all of the… how it used to be and how horrible it is... There's a lot of good things going on in life — focusing on that instead, and it helps to balance out my life. And there's no one meaning to it — everyone has some sense of hope or light in their life, and, obviously, music is mine. And the song specifically talks about gathering of people at a concert and [being] able to see the joy and the life and the love that comes out of music and the family and the kinship in that, and just a sense of uplifting."
Metallica's new album, 72 Seasons, is due out April 14th. You can order it on CD and 2LP vinyl at our shop.
