METALLICA Tries To Recapture Old-School Hunger On 'Death Magnetic', But Not To Please Fans

August 7, 2008

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield was asked by MTV News if the band's forthcoming album, "Death Magnetic", could be the next best thing to its classic "Master of Puppets" effort, seeing as the bandmembers themselves have publicly stated that the LP would signal a return to their old-school sound.

"I don't know — in a way, yes, and in a way, no," Hetfield told MTV News last week. "The last thing I want is someone to think, 'Oh, they had to go back to 'Puppets' because that was the best album, and they're doing it because we want it.' If we start writing songs for our fans, something's gone wrong. The fans may think they know best, but hey, I'm the armchair quarterback when I'm watching my team too. At the end of the day, we have to write it because we love it and it's coming from our heart. That's why people connect with it. If you start doing it for the fans, you've lost the plot."

He continued, "We recognize there was an essence, there was a youth, there was a something about that record ['Master of Puppets'], and this is a perfect time for a record like this," he said, "because old-school metal is huge and coming back, and there's so many people wanting to play, and get riffy again, get solo. ... I love that, so [with this record], it's like us starting over again."

"[Producer Rick Rubin's] mission statement was to get to the essence of METALLICA," Hetfield added. "He told us, 'Think back to 'Master of Puppets' — what were you doing? What were you thinking? What were your influences? What bothered you? What was around you? Where did that hunger come from?' And that was a little bit of homework for us that was a little impossible to get to. You could dress up like you're in 1986, [but] you just can't be there again. We've been through so much — you can't erase the learning we'd done."

Read the entire report from MTV News.

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