Home Featured METALLICA’s Next Album To Be More Of A Collaboration Than ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’

METALLICA’s Next Album To Be More Of A Collaboration Than ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’

next metallica album, METALLICA’s Next Album To Be More Of A Collaboration Than ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’

Metal Hammer did a pretty comprehensive METALLICA cover story this past September which they have now published at this location.

In the article, the band discuss the potential follow-up to 2016’s “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” album, which was considered to be largely composed by guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich.

“There’s a lot of material,” guitarist Kirk Hammett said. “I know I have tons, because I totally overcompensated. You know, last time around, it was a real shock to my system losing all those musical ideas. So, I was very determined to try and make up for lost time. I also felt that, creatively, I have so much more to offer this time around.”

Bassist Robert Trujillo added: “I’m not gonna speak on behalf of the other guys, but to me, it feels like this could be a very collaborative [writing process]. And for me personally, I love that. I love that we are in that head space to be more collaborative, and I think that’s very exciting for where we’re at now, the journey we’re about to take, the fact that those doors are opening like that.”

“It’s taking a couple of months, literally, for me to go through all [my ideas],” added Kirk, who is is not credited on any of the songs on “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct”. “I’ve got a wealth of material, and so, at any given point when we all decide, ‘Okay, let’s start formulating a schedule to start writing songs and recording it.’ I’m ready. I’m there, from day one.”

“Kirk has so many ideas,” continued Trujillo. “It’s funny because sometimes it’s literally him in the kitchen and he’s cooking, and at the same time he’s playing you a riff, or you’re sitting on the toilet and he’s playing you some ideas. But when we started to understand that [the lockdown] was gonna happen, it was like, ‘Hey, let’s be creative’, you know? Let’s just get on it. A lot of times, when there’s a band that’s been around as long as METALLICA has, you find that one of the biggest problems is, ‘Man I can’t come up with a riff, I can’t come up with any good lyrics, it’s just harder to write songs’, but that just doesn’t seem to be the problem with us. Not taking anything away from any other bands, but sometimes our worst riff might be another band’s A-list riff.”

“Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 album chart, selling 291,000 copies in its first week.

Photo credit: Anton Corbijn