Add Metallica to the list of big name metal groups that could potentially release new music during 2014. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett told Billboard that the band had "run out of excuses" to not record a new album. 

"When we start, that's going to be our main priority, and we're pretty excited about it because we've been saying we need to start working on this album, but we've been procrastinating greatly with it," he said. "We've pretty much come up with every sort of excuse we can not to start work on the album but we've run out of excuses, so we pretty much have to start work on it now."

It's been nearly six years since the group last released an album, and Hammett says Metallica isn't short of ideas, saying that guitarist/vocalist has around "800" ideas and he himself has 400. We presume these numbers are estimates. 

So what kind of excuses has the band been coming up with during recent years to prevent hitting the studio? For one was the album Lulu, an experimental collaboration with Lou Reed. Then the band began organizing the Orion Festival, which was held in 2012 and 2013, but was already ruled out for 2014. Which probably should have been a hint to all of us. The band also managed to play at least one show on every continent during 2013, including Antarctica. 

The band has one more event to perform before they enter the recording studio however. The group is one of the many acts performing at the Grammys, but they'll be sharing the stage with classical pianist Lang Lang. Hammett seemed pretty stoked, telling Billboard that he and the pianist would share a dueling solo on their respective instruments. 

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