This is encouraging! In a recently posted interview with Australian publication Mixdown, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett said,
‘”When I was 13-14 years old, bands put out albums every year. “Seriously, Kiss put out an album every eight months. None of this eight years between albums. None of us are very comfortable with the fact it’s been so long, because that is a long time. We’re hoping to avoid that this time around.
‘“We’re in our third year since Hardwired. Maybe we can get a bit more focus and go into the studio a bit sooner. I have a tonne of material. I’ve over-compensated, so I’m ready to go anytime.”’
Hammett’s comments don’t stand alone. Metallica bassist Rob Trujillo made some interesting statements during a March episode of The Music Podcast with Neil Griffiths with the comments below also appearing in the corresponding The Music article about the interview. Regarding a new Metallica album Trujillo said,
‘”It will come a lot sooner than the previous two did… this time around I think we’ll be able to jump on it a lot quicker and jump in the studio and start working.
‘”We’re all vowed to get this one going sooner than later. Now, how soon? I don’t know. We’ve been touring non-stop. It’s been over two years now. At some point, sure, we’ll need to take a little bit of a break. It’s sort of the right thing for us to do because we’ve been going so hard.”‘
Also of note: In the corresponding The Music article about the interview, Neil Griffiths writes,
‘Perhaps giving us the biggest clue Trujillo concluded, “We’re gonna be still busy next year”.’
