METALLICA'S NINTH STUDIO ALBUM

Metallica's untitled ninth studio album will possibly be released in February 2008, through Warner Bros. Records. This will be Metallica's first studio album in 5 years, since ''St. Anger'' back in 2003. The album's title has not yet been revealed to the public, nor is it known if a title has even been decided on. The record will be the band's first studio album to feature current bassist Robert Trujillo as well as the group's first studio disc to be produced by Rick Rubin.^[2] It has been described as more progressive and at times melodic, featuring a number of guitar solos, and most comparable as the "missing link" between ''...And Justice for All'' and ''Metallica'' (better known as "The Black Album"). This will also be the first studio album by Metallica released on Warner Bros. Records. Their last release with Elektra Records (a sister label to Warner Bros.) was the ''Some Kind of Monster'' EP.

Contents

Background information

Current Status

Sound

Track listing

References

Background information

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 were no mention of plans for a ninth studio album as of yet.^[3]
On March 12, 2004, drummer Lars Ulrich reported that the band performs thirty-minute jam sessions prior to live performances, and that these jams are recorded for future reference. Select music from these 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."^[4] 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.^[5]
On September 30, 2004, Launch Radio revealed from an interview with James Hetfield that the band hoped to return to the studio in spring 2005 to begin recording their ninth studio album for Warner Bros. Records.^[6]
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.^[7] Two weeks later on December 15, the band posted a video on their official website to sum up their activities during the past year.^[8]
On February 9, 2006, Lars Ulrich, the drummer of Metallica, 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."^[9]
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 been known to play for years.^[10] The next day the band confirmed they had chosen veteran music producer Rick Rubin to produce their ninth studio album.^[2]
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;^[12] this was due to Hammett's wife's pregnancy. Lars Ulrich also stated that band was getting along much better in the studio than they did during the recording of their 2003 album ''St. Anger''.^[13]
On April 16, 2006, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had composed "six to seven" songs, without vocals, from their findings of the riff tapes recording during pre-sets of the Madly in Anger with the World tour.^[14] 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.^[15]
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:
On June 6, 2006, Metallica debuted a new song at the Waldbuhne in Berlin, Germany,^[16] tentatively titled "The New Song", just as they were revealed to be considering in a February 2006 interview. ^[10]
On August 12, 2006, Metallica debuted another new song at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Japan,^[18] again as they were revealed to be considering.^[10]
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.^[20] Despite this claim, the recording sessions did not truly begin until March 12, 2007, over three months later.^[21]
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 record is as close to 100 percent possible.^[22]
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.^[21] This scheduled date was finally met.

Current Status

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 Rick Rubin'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."^[24]
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.^[25] 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.^[26] He predicted the album would be out in February 2008. He also revealed that the songs they are working with are quite long.

Sound

The band has been revealed to have returned to performing in E tuning, as they did on their first five studio albums, to compliment 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:
The music of the album reportedly has an Eastern harmonic minor flair to it that could be construed as Middle eastern and Arabic sounding.^[27] 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:

Track listing

During their Escape from the Studio '06 tour, the band debuted two songs, temporarily titled "The New Song"^[16] and "The Other New Song"^[18] respectively. Notably, the two songs mark the first official writing credit for bassist Robert Trujillo on any Metallica song. Trujillo was hired after the recording of ''St. Anger''; producer Bob Rock played bass for the entire album and shared writing credit on all the songs. 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''.^[30]
"The New Song" debuted on the European leg of the tour on June 6, 2006 in Berlin, Germany. The song clocks in at around nine minutes. The title is rumored to be "Death Is Not The End" as Hetfield repeatedly sings the line throughout the song.^[16]
"The Other New Song" debuted August 12, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, and is much shorter, at just below four minutes. 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".^[18]
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 these two new songs debuted in Berlin and Tokyo respectively will be featured on the album.^[25]
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,^[24] 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".^[35] These titles however are to be taken with a grain of salt, as most 'working titles' under Metallica are humorous in nature and are almost always changed before an album is released.

References

1. Newsferatu. ''Metallica To Start Recording March 12th'', reported by KNAC.com February 9 2007. Last accessed July 18 2007
2. Jonathan Cohen. ''Rick Rubin Producing New Metallica Album'', reported by Billboard.com February 20 2006. Last accessed July 18 2007
3. The New Zealand Herald. ''METALLICA's HETFIELD Talks About DAVE MUSTAINE, EXODUS And Follow-up To 'St. Anger' '', reported by Blabbermouth.net January 16 2004. Last accessed July 18 2007
4. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA's ULRICH Is Looking Forward To Returning To The Studio In January'', reported by Blabbermouth.net March 12 2004. Last accessed July 18 2007
5. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Bassist Says There Are More Than 50 Recorded Hours Of New Music To Sift Through'', reported by Blabbermouth.net October 15 2004. Last accessed July 18 2007
6. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Frontman Wishes 'St. Anger' Songs Were Shorter'', reported by Blabbermouth.net September 30 2004. Last accessed July 18 2007
7. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Begin Rehearsing For New Album'', reported by Blabbermouth.net November 30 2004. Last accessed July 18 2007
8. Metallica.com. ''Band Babble. Update from the boys!'', reported by Metallica.com December 15 2005. Last accessed July 18 2007
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12. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA To Spend Six Months Writing Before Commencing Recording Process'', reported by Blabbermouth.net March 10 2006. Last accessed July 18 2007
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21. Newsferatu. ''Metallica To Start Recording March 12th'', reported by KNAC.com February 19 2007. Last accessed July 18 2007
22. ''Revolver''. ''METALLICA's LARS ULRICH On New Songs: 'We're Trying To Be As Self-Critical As Possible' '', reported by Blabbermouth.net February 19 2007. Last accessed July 18 2007
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25. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Bassist TRUJILLO: New Album Is Dynamic, Heavy And Groovin' '', reported by Blabbermouth.net June 4 2007. Last accessed July 18 2007
26. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA's LARS ULRICH: New Album To Arrive Next Spring'', reported by Blabbermouth.net July 12 2007. Last accessed July 18 2007
27. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Guitarist HAMMETT Says New Material Has 'Middle Eastern' Vibe'', reported by Blabbermouth.net March 16 2007. Last accessed July 18 2007
28. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Debut New Song At Berlin Concert'', reported by Blabbermouth.net June 6 2006. Last accessed July 18 2007
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30. FMQB.com. ''Ulrich Says New Metallica Music Is "More Organic"'', reported by FMQB.com January 5 2006. Last accessed July 18 2007
31. Blabbermouth.net. ''METALLICA Debut New Song At Berlin Concert'', reported by Blabbermouth.net June 6 2006. Last accessed July 18 2007
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35. ''Kerrang!''. ''James' Kerrang! Interview'', reported by Metallica Message Board July 19 2007. Last accessed July 23 2007