Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich expects the band’s 10th album to be released this year – although he’s stopped short of confirming it.
Fans have endured an eight-year wait since the launch of Death Magnetic, while the thrash icons have balanced writing and recording duties against their other artistic interests.
Ulrich – who said last week that studio work was nearly complete – tells Billboard: “Unless something radical happens it would be difficult for me to believe that it won’t come out in 2016. That’s what we’re going for.
“But obviously, the way we do things now is very different than the way we did things back in the days of Kill ‘Em All and Ride The Lightning. Nowadays we like to do so many different things.
“We like to write and record – but we also like to be Record Store Day ambassadors, put out deluxe reissues, and all these other things. Writing and recording is now something that is part of the bigger picture, rather than something that happens exclusively.”
Despite the long wait, Ulrich argues: “The new record may actually have been written and recorded faster than the last one. It’s just been spread out over a longer period of time, with these gaps in recording.”
He adds: “I’m certainly not complaining about it. It’s just the way we work now.”
Meanwhile, Metallica have released a video that documents how some of their early material was transferred from Ulrich’s personal archive to appear in their upcoming box set editions.
