Metallica drummer talks new album, future plans

PanARMENIAN.Net - Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has discussed his band's new album and future plans, NME said.

Last month, guitarist Kirk Hammett gave an update on when fans can expect their new record, revealing that the group are still "slogging away" on the follow-up 2008's 'Death Magnetic'.

Now Ulrich has told Rolling Stone that the band are "quite far along" in terms of recording their album, which should be finished in the spring.

"I think it will be a pretty in-your-face year, at least the back half of it," Ulrich said. "Obviously, we've gotta finish the new record now. But thankfully we're quite far along. Hopefully we should be able to knock that on the head this spring, I would guess. So we will be gearing up and playing shows and doing all that fun stuff again soon."

Metallica recently announced that they will reissue their first two albums 'Kill ‘Em All' and 'Ride The Lightning' in April. Speaking about the news, Ulrich said: "There's been this dichotomy between the new record, moving the band forward, and all this great stuff that's happening in the future... We've had one foot in the past, sifting through old photos and old memorabilia and listening to old songs, and another in the new album. It's been a confluence of all these different energies, and I'm not even sure exactly what to make of all of it."

Describing what it still feels like to be in the band after over 30 years, Ulrich added: "What am I, 52? So I'm usually taking care of my kids, being a husband, hanging out with my friends, doing my thing and making a record, all this type of stuff. It's awesome to feel my age. But when the four of us are together, it's like the median age of all of us just drops and drops."

"We get very silly, very childlike. There's a lot of adolescent humour. This is a bunch of 52-year-olds trying to make sense of all of it. David Lee Roth or somebody once said, 'The more people you put in a room together, the lower the IQ gets,' and there's definitely a sense of that when all of us get together. It's kind of nice to a degree that you can still feel young and spunky and vibrant. I still think that we feel kind of young and like we have something left to prove. We're still sort of trying to figure it all out."