KIRK HAMMETT Says METALLICA Will 'Buckle Down' In September To Work On New Album

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke to Guitar World magazine about the progress of the sonwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic", tentatively due next year.

"We totally want to make an album," Hammett said. "But we have all these other touring commitments, and we have families now. It's gonna be summertime soon, and it's hard to work because the kids are out of school."

"But we have a backlog of riffs in the riff bank," he continued. "Now it's about picking riffs out, putting them together and moving along. Later, we'll revisit it all and see where it goes. We've all said to each other that September is gonna be the time when we buckle down. I know I told everyone it was gonna be last January…but that's just the way it goes! [Laughs]"

METALLICA recently completed a South American tour where the band played a nearly all-request set, with 17 songs chosen online by fans prior to each gig and the last slot filled by the new track "Lords Of Summer".

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told RollingStone.com that "Lords Of Summer" "is fairly representative of where our creative headspace is at right now. It's one of those things that's like, 'Here, we're writing and we're creating.'" However, according to Hammett, even that track is still being refined.

"Because of everything we had going on, I didn't have time to work out the guitar solo in 'Lords Of Summer'," Hammett told Guitar World. "The solo that's on the demo track was all we had time to do. I barely knew what I was gonna do and didn't have time to really formulate anything. We told everyone that the song was a demo version…and the solo is really a demo version. [Laughs] If you compare the solo in the demo version to what I've been playing live at those South American shows, it's a lot better and more refined now."

The "Metallica By Request" tour will hit Europe this summer, with a single North American date confirmed in Montreal.

Ulrich admitted that there's no set timeline to record or release the new disc, but told Rolling Stone in April, "We're going to do these dates this summer and then really hone down. I'd say that right now, we're in the fourth inning."

Fans in South America picked mostly hits for the group to play, with Ulrich admitting, "To be totally honest with you, sometimes I wish they would vote on some of the really obscure songs. We love playing crazy stuff."

Ulrich said that U.S. fans might get to experience "Metallica By Request" either next year or in 2016, depending on when the new album is finished.

"The Lords Of Summer" official performance footage:

"The Lords Of Summer" "garage demo" version: