METALLICA: Hear Audio Snippet Of Brand New Song

METALLICA has uploaded a new holiday video greeting from guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield. (Note: To watch the clip, you will need to register for METALLICA's new fan club, which is now free.) The 33-second video includes a short snippet of Hetfield in the studio at the band's headquarters in San Rafael, California playing back what appears to be a new METALLICA song.

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett recently confirmed in interviews with About.com and Ultimate Classic Rock that the band is in the process of recording some of its new material for the long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" album. Hammett revealed: "At this point, we're still just doing basic backing tracks. James is doing his guitar stuff, and I am just kind of waiting patiently to go in there and do all of my guitar stuff."

As for what the material sounds like, Hammett said: "It's heavy. We've got some heavy stuff going. It delivers on that front, for sure. You know, I would say a lot of it is along the lines of 'Death Magnetic'. A lot of it seems to be going along those lines. But, you know, with social media now and everything else, I'm a little bit wary to comment too much on the album. We're still working on it."

Aside from touring, METALLICA has spent much of the seven years since the release of "Death Magnetic" on several other projects, including launching a music festival, recording an album with the late Lou Reed and making a feature film.

Hammett told About.com that working at its own pace is necessary for METALLICA, explaining: "One always wants to work at the pace that they're most comfortable at, taking seven or eight years between albums is a lot of time, but we've filled it up with other things."

Still, bassist Robert Trujillo told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that the band still enjoys the songwriting process after all these years. "When we strap our guitars on and we get on the practice floor, we start writing, I mean, it's fun," he said. "And that's the thing that keeps, I think, this band so relevant, is that we actually really enjoy coming up with ideas. And the work ethic is super, super strong and that's what takes us longer than other bands, you know, because we're sitting there and, you know, sometimes we're really analyzing things."

Ulrich recently told RollingStone.com that METALLICA had written close to 20 new songs for its new album, although he declined to offer a possible release date for the new CD.

METALLICA played its last show of 2015 in September at the Rock In Rio festival in Brazil and will next perform at "The Night Before", a concert event set to take place the night before Super Bowl 50, on Saturday, February 6, 2016 at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

METALLICA released a limited 12-inch vinyl single of the new song "Lords Of Summer" in November 2014. The single featured the "first pass" studio version of the song as well as a live take recorded in Rome in July 2014. This collectable vinyl was only made available through independent record stores and Metallica.com.