Death Magnetic

Untitled

Metallica's upcoming ninth studio album may be released by mid-2008, though a definite date has not yet been announced. The album will be the band's first record release through Warner Bros. Records, although they still remain with Warner Music Group, which owned their previous label, Elektra Records. The record will be the band's first studio album to feature current bassist Robert Trujillo as well as the first to be produced by Rick Rubin.

The album's style has been described as more progressive and, at times, melodic, as it features many guitar solos. It has been referred to as the "missing link" between 1988's ...And Justice for All and 1991's Metallica. The album will be Metallica's first studio album to be released since 2003's St. Anger.

Writing process

2004-2005

As early as January 16, 2004, James Hetfield, the frontman of Metallica, revealed that the band had roughly 18 songs that did not see release on their 2003 album St. Anger, and that they may be reworked in the future, if not potentially released as is. Hetfield also said that they had been playing new material during studio jams, but that there was no mention of plans for a ninth studio album as of yet. On March 12, 2004, drummer Lars Ulrich reported that the band had performed thirty-minute jam sessions prior to live performances, and that the jams are recorded for future reference. Select music from the jam sessions may be used on the album, as Ulrich stated, "I definitely look forward to sifting through some of that stuff when we get back to the studio in January." On that note, by October 2004 the band had already compiled nearly 50 hours of pre-set jamming, with hundreds of riffs, chord progressions and bass lines. On September 30, 2004, Launch Radio revealed from an interview with Hetfield that the band hoped to return to the studio in spring 2005 to begin recording their ninth studio album for Warner Bros. Records.

On November 30, 2005, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had begun rehearsing material for what would be their ninth studio album the day before. Two weeks later on December 15, the band posted a video on their official website to sum up their activities during the past year.

2006-2007

On February 9, 2006, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had begun writing material for their ninth album in an interview at the Sundance Festival: "We're having fun, writing, jamming and hanging. It's all good — no psychiatrists." On February 15, 2006, Ulrich also revealed that the band had expressed interest in debuting new material during their summer 2006 European shows, in addition to songs they hadn't played live for years. The next day the band confirmed they had chosen veteran music producer Rick Rubin to produce their ninth studio album. On March 10, 2006, it was reported that the band was planning to use the following six months to write material for the album, in addition to the previous two months they had already been spending writing music. It was also revealed that Ulrich, Hetfield and Robert Trujillo were active contributors in the process at this point, and that guitarist Kirk Hammett showed up once in a while; this was due to Hammett's wife's pregnancy. Lars Ulrich also stated that the band was getting along much better in the studio than they did during the recording of their 2003 album St. Anger. On April 16, 2006, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had composed "six to seven" songs, (except for vocals), from their findings of the riff tapes recording during pre-sets of the Madly in Anger with the World tour. He also said that by this point, the band's new material was reminiscent of "old school" Metallica works, and that it certainly does not feel like a St. Anger "part two".

On May 20, 2006, Kirk Hammett revealed that the band had 15 songs written and were writing on average two to three songs per week. James Hetfield also praised producer Rick Rubin for his production style in giving the band their own freedom and keeping the pressure at a minimum, despite the sessions becoming sometimes briefly unfocused. On May 27, 2006, Metallica updated their website with a video featuring information regarding the album. Lars Ulrich, who spearheaded the video, had this to say about the new album:

We're actually not recording right now. I know everybody, nowadays, it's like, if you're in the studio, everybody presumes you're recording or making a record, which, of course, we technically are. But the difference between this time and last time is that last time there was no real separation between the writing process and the recording process; it was one thing, and that was the whole kind of 'St. Anger' experiment — to do away with the separate processes of that, and nobody brought in any pre-recorded stuff or ideas; it was just make it up on the spot, be in the moment, put the fucking thing out and next time remember to put the snare on, all that stuff — we've covered that. So this time we are doing exactly what we did on all the other albums — first we're writing, then we're recording. The only difference is — and this is kind of where it gets a little gray area, next-level shit — is that we're writing where we record. So we're writing here at HQ because this is our home, our pad, our hood, our thing. On all the earlier albums... we wrote the 'black' album at my house and recorded it in L.A., we wrote the 'Justice' album at my house and recorded it in L.A., we wrote the 'Puppets' album at James' house and recorded it in Denmark, blah blah blah. But now we're writing in the studio. We show up here five days a week, we get together, we listen to some riff tape from Madrid or Glasgow or Peoria, Illinois, and we sit down and go, 'That riff' and 'That riff,' and then we spend the next six hours trying to remember how to write songs, and then we go pick our kids up and then we come back the next morning and do it all over again.

— Lars Ulrich

On June 6, 2006, Metallica debuted a new song, tentatively titled "The New Song", at the Waldbuhne in Berlin, Germany. This follwed Lars Ulrich's claims in February of the same year that the band's summer festival appearances would see the first public airing of material from their ninth studio album. On August 12, 2006, Metallica debuted another new song at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Japan, On December 6, 2006, Metallica revealed that they would begin recording their ninth album in the following month, and that they had over two dozen song ideas prepared. Despite this claim, the recording sessions did not truly begin until March 12, 2007, over three months later. On January 17, 2007, Lars Ulrich stated in an interview with Revolver that the band would be conceiving the album much like they did their albums prior to working with ex-producer Bob Rock; they would sit down, write a select amount of songs, then enter the studio to record them. He also quoted current producer Rick Rubin by saying Rubin doesn't want them to start the recording process until every song that they are going to record is as close to 100 percent as possible. On February 9, 2007, Metallica confirmed on their official website that despite having only nearly finishing pre-production and failing to begin the recording process in January 2007, the band would begin recording the album on March 12, 2007. This scheduled date was finally met.

Recording process

2007

On March 5, 2007, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had narrowed a potential 25 songs down to 14, and that they would begin recording those 14 songs on the following week. He also expanded on Bob Rock's style of production, saying, "Rick's big thing is to kind of have all these songs completely embedded in our bodies and basically next Monday, on D-Day, just go in and execute them — basically, just play them instead of ... so you leave the creative element of the process out of the recording, so you go in and basically just record a bunch of songs that you know inside out and upside down and you don't have to spend too much of your energy in the recording studio creating and thinking and analyzing and doing all that stuff. His whole analogy is, the recording process becomes more like a gig — just going in and playing and leaving all the thinking at the door."

On March 14, 2007, the band's official website issued the following statement: "Metallica left the comfort of HQ this week to descend upon the greater Los Angeles area to begin recording their 9th original album. This is the first time they've recorded outside of the Bay Area since they spent an eternity at One-On-One Studios recording The Black Album in '90 and '91."

On June 4, 2007, bassist Robert Trujillo revealed in an interview that only select portions of the two new songs debuted in Berlin and Tokyo respectively will be featured on the album. To the surprise of fans, Metallica played "The Other New Song" once again on June 29, 2007 in Bilbao, Spain.

On July 1, 2007, Lars Ulrich stated in an interview that all backing tracks were done in May, and all that the album was missing were vocals and overdubs to be recorded in August, and that they hoped to have finished the album by October or November, the latter being around the time the album will be mixed. He predicted the album would be out in February 2008. He also revealed that the songs they are working with are quite long.

On November 14 Metclub.com reported that Metallica will be sitting down for a round-table discussion about the new record to talk about the recording process in great detail. This discussion will be out in So What! 14.4 and will have exclusive content on the new record.

In the December 2007 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Ulrich stated that the only things left to record, come this Thanksgiving, are overdubs and Hetfield's vocals. This and other statements have led fans to believe that the record won't be released until early spring (March-June).

2008

In January 2008, a statement was made by Stereowarning.com that the album would be delayed until September of 2008 , but was quickly denied by Metallica's management since an album without a defined release date can not be "delayed". It's possible that it will be released sooner (Early/Late Spring), due to Metallica scheduling concerts in June, for a new European tour.

On January 21st, 2008, but reported on February 11th, Metclub.com revealed, through pictures on its Top Secret section, that James Hetfield has begun recording vocals for the new record.

On February 29th, 2008, according to Sterlingsound.com, it was discovered that Ted Jensen from Sterling Sound Studios will be mastering the new record. Supposedly, he signed on to do it on August 24th, 2006.

In a recent interview on Bruce Dickinson’s BBC6 radio show, Lars Ulrich stated that Metallica has a goal of a September release for the new album.

Sound

The band has been reported to have returned to performing in E tuning, as they did on their first five studio albums, to complement James Hetfield's vocals. The band had previously played in E flat since the recording of Load and dropped C on St. Anger.

Drummer Lars Ulrich also stated that the change in producers was pivotal to the album's conception:

With Bob Rock, we'd go into the studio when we had some concrete ideas. But Rick wants us to take care of all the creative elements first. He wants us to capture these songs in a recording environment instead of creating them there.

— Lars Ulrich

The music of the album reportedly has an Eastern harmonic minor flair to it that could be construed as Middle eastern and Arabic sounding. Drummer Lars Ulrich may have resented Hammett's statements of these Middle Eastern influences, saying "There's a couple of bits in there that could be called Eastern, but don't read too much into that — it's not an album full of 12 "Kashmir"'s or anything but there is some stuff in that direction, sure."

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum described his impressions of the unfinished songs:

Lars (Ulrich) is a good friend of mine. He played me the demos from San Francisco, and I turned and looked at him and I said, 'Master that shit and put it out.' It's ridiculous. The demos were sick. Eight-minute songs, all these tempo changes, crazy fast. It's like, 'Dude, don't get slower when you get older, but don't get faster!? How are you gonna play this live?' And then me and Lars were out partying all night, and he had to go in the studio the next day and do this stupid like nine- or ten-minute song, and I was laughing at him — because he played me the demo of it, and it was [sings really fast drum part], so fast. I called him, and said, 'Dude, how are you feeling?' He was like, 'Dude, I'm hurting.' They're cutting everything to tape, no fuckin' ProTools — live, no clicks. Bitchin'. I dig it. I'm really excited for them."

— Matt Sorum

During an interview with Revolver magazine, Lars Ulrich stated:

This stuff is certainly a lot more dynamic and a lot more varied than the last couple of go-rounds," he said. "There's a lot of light and shade in these songs. There's heavy, fast, nutty stuff, and then there's some slowdowns and musical interludes. It's pretty different from 'St. Anger', and it's pretty different from the 'Load' stuff. This stuff is not the one-dimensional punch in the face that 'St. Anger' was. This is probably a little more like those couple of albums back there in the decade that begins with an '8.'

— Lars Ulrich

When asked on whether the material represents a return to the "old school," Ulrich replied:

I hate to be that specific, because six months from now people are gonna go, 'What the fuck? Lars lied to us!' But it feels that way to me. It's been no secret that Rick [Rubin, producer] suggested to us that we use a couple of those records as reference points — that we spend some time kind of accessing that headspace. So when we would come to forks in the road, sometimes the exercise became, 'What would we have done at this point in 1985?'

— Lars Ulrich

In a recent interview with Virginia Fuel, MetClub's Virginia's local chapter, Lars Ulrich's longtime assistance, Steve Wiig, revealed some new details about the album's sound.

I hear it all of the time. I can't get away from it. I'm usually in or around the studio with them. There's some fast stuff, heavy stuff, slow stuff. There's some stuff on there that sounds a little bit closer to the "Fade to Black" / "Sanitarium" / "One"-style. the clean riff thing, a great melody. Verse stuff with the heavy chorus and the ending blows the shit out of the roof. It's cool to hear them doing that kind of thing again.

— Steve Wiig

Wiig also stated that the lyrics of the new album were written by James Hetfield alone again, unlike on St. Anger.

Possible track listing

During their Escape from the Studio '06 tour, the band debuted two songs, temporarily titled "The New Song" and "The Other New Song" respectively. Notably, the two songs mark the first official writing credit for bassist Robert Trujillo on any Metallica song. In another hint of the album's direction, Lars Ulrich mentions that the album will be more organic, and that Pro Tools would most likely be used less when recording the album than it was for their last studio album. The new album will, as it seems, be less cut and paste than St. Anger.

"The New Song" debuted on the European leg of the tour on June 6, 2006 in Berlin, Germany. The song, as performed, is approximately nine minutes long. The title is rumored to be "Death is Not the End" as Hetfield repeatedly sings the line throughout the song.

"The Other New Song" debuted August 12, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, and is much shorter, taking just below four minutes to perform. It is rumored to be called "Vulturus" as this is a prominent lyric that is chanted. Artist Tony Squindo has also designed "Scary Guy Vulturus" that have been featured on recent Metallica merchandise (including the Metallica Fan Club's 2007 shirt) and have been labeled "Vulturus".

Both songs are fast-paced and feature solos from Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, ending fan and critic belief that there would not be any future guitar solos from Metallica. Lars Ulrich stated in the Some Kind of Monster movie that he was bored with traditional melody, as proven on the St. Anger album.

Recently, bassist Robert Trujillo revealed in an interview that only select portions of the two new songs debuted in Berlin and Tokyo respectively will be featured on the album.

Initially Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had narrowed a potential 25 songs down to 14, and that they would begin recording those 14 songs on the following week, but more recently Kirk Hammett has stated that the band may narrow the final track listing again down to between 9 and 10 tracks, of the 14 recorded, depending on whether they pick out the shorter or longer tracks.

Vocalist James Hetfield recently revealed some current working titles to include "One Minute Closer to Death (Than You Were a Minute Ago)" and "We Put the Riff in Riff Raff". It should be noted, however, that most 'working titles' under Metallica are humorous in nature and are almost always changed before an album is released.

Recently Lars told Examiner.com that "There's one called '19,' '10,' 'German Soup', 'Glass Cow', 'Exploiter', and even 'Black Squirrel'. Just names that relate to where the idea came from, like Glasgow, Scotland became 'Glass Cow.' And when we don't have anything clever to call it, we just call it a number. They're just silly working titles."

In an interview with the creators of the Rock Band video game, it has been stated that Metallica has given rights to the company to have the first single off the new album available for playability on the game before the album's release.