Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has revealed that the bands upcoming album will be a step away from the complexity of its predecessor, ‘Death Magnetic,’ and will be similar to the style of music they were releasing in the early 90s.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Hammett said, “If ‘Death Magnetic’ was a logical successor to [1988s] ‘…And Justice For All,’ the next album will be a heavier ‘Black Album.’ We’re not going to the depths of complexity that we did for ‘Death Magnetic.’ The stuff we’re coming up with is more groove-oriented, a heavier version of what we were doing in the early Nineties.”
Dummer Lars Ulrich elaborated, “When people talk about the old stuff, they think ‘Justice’. But look at ‘Harvester Of Sorrow’ on that album. It’s a fairly simple five-minute song. And ‘Fuel’ [on 1997s 'Reload'] is an absolute scorcher live. Right now, I’m thinking shorter, more to-the-point.”
Metallica have already written seven or eight songs for the as yet untitled album, which will be produced by Rick Rubin, who previously worked with the band on ‘Death Magnetic.’
Metallica will also be the stars of an upcoming 3D concert movie, set for release, sometime in the summer of 2013. According to Hammett, the band wasn’t very keen on the idea at first, but, “We were sold on it by our managers, that it would be a lot of fun and we would have a big-ass stage to play on.“ Now the band has every intention of making the film one of epic proportions, “the biggest Metallica live show we’ve ever done, next-level stuff.”
It’s about time. The Black Album is timeless and is a reference point for many aspiring metal musicians looking to achieve a less is more approach whilst remaining entertaining, some people will cringe when I say this but the Black album is my favourite by far and I personally would like to hear more of this sound from Metallica. I hope they aren’t just delusional or in denial and this album really is as it is described above. At this stage in their career new fans are getting scarcer and therefore they need to satisfy their long term loyal fans and wind the clock back 15 years when writing this new album. I can only hope until I lay ears on this album.
Ive been a metallica fan for quite a few years now when i heard how st anger sounded i wasnt happy at all with how it turned out. that was partly bob rocks fault i love the black album i dont know how the band is gonna live up to the black album i mean would they do a unforgiven 4 they have 3 diferent versions of that song they have enter sandman and a bunch of good songs off the black album i think rick rubin doing this album is a good idea i mean look what he did with death magnetic its a great album and i hope the band goes back to that kinda style i trust the band will make good choices for there follow up black album