METALLICA Bassist: Next Album Is Really, Truly Going To Be An Extension Of 'Death Magnetic'

METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo spoke to Tree Riddle of the Flint, Michigan radio station Banana 101.5 Rocks about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic", tentatively due in 2015.

"The real scoop would be that, in the last few months, we've been jamming new ideas," Trujillo said. "Now, I guess, you could say it's a blessing and a curse. There is an arsenal, years of riffs that we have recorded. That ranges from, like, iPhone recording to Zoom recorder recordings to our jam-room Pro Tools setup recordings, because, on tour, we have a jam room and we jam stuff. [METALLICA frontman] James Hetfield, I mean, the minute he plugs in his guitar and adjusts the tone knob, he comes up with the world's greatest riff. It's a process of elimination to see what is gonna be good enough for what we're trying to do and it takes a long time. We've been going through all of that. Then, all of a sudden, you end up going to South Africa for a tour — which is great, don't get me wrong — and Australia and something else comes up and something else… Orion festival. So these great opportunities enter the progress of what we're trying to do with the album. So I would say after Orion, we'll get back to the writing process. I can also say that the ideas are awesome. I'm super psyched. I feel that this next album, for me personally, is really, truly going to be an extension of 'Death Magnetic'. 'Death Magnetic', to me, is a launchpad for what we are gonna do and what we can do. That was a long process and that was a heavy experience. We had five children born during the 'Death Magnetic' cycle. So here we go on this new adventure and we're not gonna have five children born on [this] cycle… I hope not. [laughs] We're all doing great and well with our families, so now it would be great to concentrate on the new record and the ideas, again, they're crushing … I believe that we're gonna do something really special. We're having a great time jamming the stuff and putting things together, but we still got a ways to go. So, everybody's just gotta be patient."

In April, Hetfield told Abu Dhabi's That's Entertainment about METALLICA's next CD: "We haven't even started writing it. We're going through riffs. We have, like, 800-and-something riffs we're going through — lots of ideas. We're really excited about it, but doing concerts here and there, trying to get back in the studio and get some stuff done, it's all really exciting. But it gets done on METALLICA time, which is not really scheduled. When it's done, it's done and when it's good, then it will be done."

Asked in a recent interview with Revolver about the next album, Ulrich said, "We're in the early stages of writing, and all I can say is there are some good things lurking," adding, "2014 is a bit optimistic for the album to come out, so '15 is more realistic. But listen, there's no rush. It's gonna take what it takes. I don't feel stressed about it, but that doesn't mean we don't care."

METALLICA fans can next see the band headlining their own festival, Orion Music + More, on June 8-9 in Detroit, and then wait for the September 27 release of "Metallica Through The Never", an IMAX 3D feature film that combines concert footage with a fictional narrative.