Though the release date on Metallica‘s forthcoming album is still undecided, the band are already starting to gee us up by drip-feeding sneaky little updates, the latest of which shows that the band will be mixing things up on the album after James Hetfield promised fans a “diverse collection of songs” on the next record.
You wouldn’t think there would be much more room to diversify between the fast down picking and 8-minute solos but, by the band’s own account, they still have some tricks up their rolled-up sleeves which we haven’t seen before. Speaking to Triple M , Hetfield explained, “I don’t know where it’s going yet but we’ve got lots of different sounds, different styles.”
And before you freak out and envision some god-awful collaboration with Diplo or Elton John, James makes it clear, “We’re certainly not afraid of jumping into past ‘feels’. After Death Magnetic we’ve stopped running hard and started embracing some of our past. Master Of Puppets was kind of a core reference for Death Magnetic.”
Could this mean that the next album will be heavily influenced by …And Justice For All or The Black Album? We can only hope.
James has also justified the lengthy gap between albums, citing the band’s hectic list of commitments that need to be checked off before the album can be finished, including their own Orion Festival and their much-talked-about 3-D movie. “Yeah, we’re trying to write [new material] but gigs keep popping up that are too exciting to stay home for…We have lots of material [we’ve been] working on, from the day Death Magnetic ended all the way up until now.”
It certainly has nothing to do with writers block – Hetfield adds that he has around “700 riffs” in the ol’ riff bank, of which “at least three I’ve played 20 times”.
Here’s hoping 2013 is the return of the Metallica we know and love.
