METALLICA Guitarist On Next Album: 'The Riff Bank Keeps Getting Bigger And Bigger'

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke to MTV.com at this past weekend's Orion Music + More festival about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic", tentatively due in 2015.

"We do have a lot of musical ideas, we have something called 'the Riff Bank,' and the Riff Bank keeps getting bigger and bigger, still, to this day," he said. "I'm writing stuff, Rob's [Trujillo, bass] writing stuff, James [Hetfield, guitar/vocals] is writing stuff, Lars [Ulrich, drums] is writing stuff, continually expanding the Riff Bank. So, it doesn't look like we're going to be putting out an album any time soon this year, it would be an amazing stroke of luck and grace if our album came out next year. I think it's a more sober statement to make to say that the album will probably come out in 2015. That's a sober, realistic thing ... but we're psyched about it."

He continued: "It's too early in the game to tell you it will sound like 'Death Magnetic'. I mean, we have a lot of ideas but no actual finished songs, so it's hard for me to give you an accurate description. But we're looking forward to making it as heavy and as high-energy as possible, because that's what we want."

Hamett also spoke about METALLICA's movie, "Metallica Through The Never", which will open on IMAX screens in the U.S. on September 27, with a wider release following on October 4.

The movie stars Dane DeHaan has a member of the band's road crew who is sent on a mysterious mission while the group headlines a concert at an arena. The film is said to mix a conventional storyline with concert footage.

"'Through The Never' is not exactly your typical concert film; it has a narrative weaving in and out of the concert footage," Kirk said. " You won't see, like, interviews with the band members backstage, or anything like that. All you'll see is raw footage of us onstage, and then narrative, with the story that weaves in and out. It's taken us on a pretty unique trip, because we're not in the movies industry, we're in the music industry. We've learned a lot about movies in general, and the business in general ... we just have to nail down a few things here and there, but we're excited about it."