METALLICA's KIRK HAMMETT: New Songs Have "Fighting Spirit"

The brand new issue of Rolling Stone magazine (issue #904, cover date: September 5, 2002) includes a short METALLICA studio report containing a few more details about the group's approach to the recording process for the band's much-anticipated new CD, tentatively due in early 2003.

Among the topics covered in the article are the following:

The songwriting/recording process for the new CD:

Kirk Hammett: "When you take a lot of punches, you just want to punch back. We have that fighting spirit, and it's coming through in the songs."

"Usually when we're in the studio, there's a bad vibe and a lot of one-upmanship. This time, we're saying 'Fuck you' to all that. We're being friends and family first."

Lars Ulrich: "No one brings in anything they have written [on their own]. Now, the only music that comes in is played by the four of us on the floor."

"We're going to record these moments [i.e. nearly 30 'blueprints' for songs], and then we'll pick the moments that we want to share."

"We just wanna take it easy. That's what we're doing post-Jason and after what James has been through. Right now, there's a sense of rebirth. It's not forced. It's just so fucking natural."

On the first track completed for the new CD, tentatively entitled "Dead Kennedy Rolls":

"Dead Kennedy Rolls" is an example of what Hammett calls the band's "darker and very reflective" sound. Says Ulrich, "It's three minutes of total fuck-you attitude."