Lars Ulrich talked to Rolling Stone recently, letting fans know that Metallica is hard at work on a new album. The new release will follow up the well-received 2008 effort Death Magnetic, but the drummer did not offer a timetable for the record. He did promise one thing, though — there will be no surprise release.
"Right now, it's not like we're going to do one of those things where we'll just give it to iTunes on Thursday without telling anybody," Ulrich said. "That's not in the cards."
"We are f*cking in it," the percussionist added. "We've got lots of songs, and we're honing them and tweaking them. It's pretty close."
The group is still figuring out who will produce the album, but they hope to enter the studio sooner rather than later. Fans will be able to hear some of the new material when Metallica hits the road this spring and summer, although the band's only U.S. date is a headlining spot at Rock in Rio in Las Vegas.
Ulrich said that the band is in the fine-tuning phase of the album process. They're planning to try some new stuff on this one.
"In our world, there's been a distinct difference between the creative phase and the recording phase," he said. "With this project, we're trying to bridge the two a little more organically and not have there be such a great divide between the processes. We want to see if we can bring some of the creative curiosity, the impulsive stuff that happens when you're first playing a song into the studio."
Don't expect the album in the next month or two because the band is working in "Metallica time." The group is piecing it together every day.
