Metallica's ninth studio album

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Ninth studio album
Studio album by Metallica
Released	September, 2008[1]
Recorded	March 12, 2007[2] to Early May 2008 Los Angeles, California
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Rick Rubin, Metallica
Metallica chronology
Some Kind of Monster (2004) Ninth studio album (2008)

Metallica's ninth studio album is expected to be released in September. The album will be the band's first record release through Warner Bros. Records, although they still remain with Warner Music Group, which owned their previous label, Elektra Records. The record will be the band's first studio album to feature current bassist Robert Trujillo and the first to be produced by Rick Rubin.^[3]

The album's style has been described as more progressive and, at times, melodic, as it features many guitar solos. It has been referred to as the "missing link" between 1988's ...And Justice for All and 1991's Metallica^{[citation needed]}. The album will be Metallica's first studio album to be released since 2003's St. Anger.

In an interview with the creators of the Rock Band video game, it has been stated that Metallica has given rights to the company to have the first single off the new album available for playability on the game before the album's release.^[4]

On May 15, 2008, Lars Ulrich confirmed that they officially recorded 11 songs for the album, although only 10 will appear on the album due to the constraints of the physical medium ^[5].

Contents 1 Background information 1.1 Writing process 1.2 Recording process 2 Sound 3 Media impressions 4 Possible track listing 5 References

[edit] Background information

[edit] Writing process

As early as January 16, 2004, Metallica frontman and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield 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 was no mention of plans for a ninth studio album as of yet.^[6] On March 12, 2004, drummer Lars Ulrich reported that the band had performed thirty-minute jam sessions prior to live performances, and that the jams are recorded for future reference. Select music from the 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."^[7] 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.^[8] On September 30, 2004, Launch Radio revealed from an interview with Hetfield that the band hoped to return to the studio in spring 2005 to begin recording their ninth studio album for Warner Bros. Records.^[9]

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; guitarist Hammett was an infrequent contributor due to his wife's pregnancy.^[10] . Lars Ulrich also stated that the band was getting along much better in the studio than they did during the recording of their 2003 album St. Anger.^[11] On April 16, 2006, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band had composed "six to seven" songs, (except for vocals), from their findings of the riff tapes recording during pre-sets of the Madly in Anger with the World tour.^[12] 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.^[13] 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:

“	We're actually not recording right now. I know everybody, nowadays, it's like, if you're in the studio, everybody presumes you're recording or making a record, which, of course, we technically are whole. But the difference between this time and last time is that last time there was no real separation between the writing process and the recording process; it was one thing, and that was the whole kind of 'St. Anger' experiment — to do away with the separate processes of that, and nobody brought in any pre-recorded stuff or ideas; it was just make it up on the spot, be in the moment, put the fucking thing out and next time remember to put the snare on, all that stuff — we've covered that. So this time we are doing exactly what we did on all the other albums — first we're writing, then we're recording. The only difference is — and this is kind of where it gets a little gray area, next-level shit — is that we're writing where we record. So we're writing here at HQ because this is our home, our pad, our hood, our thing. On all the earlier albums... we wrote the 'black' album at my house and recorded it in L.A., we wrote the 'Justice' album at my house and recorded it in L.A., we wrote the 'Puppets' album at James' house and recorded it in Denmark, blah blah blah. But now we're writing in the studio. We show up here five days a week, we get together, we listen to some riff tape from Madrid or Glasgow or Peoria, Illinois, and we sit down and go, 'That riff' and 'That riff,' and then we spend the next six hours trying to remember how to write songs, and then we go pick our kids up and then we come back the next morning and do it all over again.[14]	„
—Lars Ulrich

On June 6, 2006, Metallica debuted a new song, tentatively titled "The New Song", at the Waldbuhne in Berlin, Germany^[15]. This followed Ulrich's claims in February of the same year that the band's summer festival appearances would see the first public airing of material from their ninth studio album.^[16] On August 12, 2006, Metallica debuted another new song at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, Japan,^[17] 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.^[18] Despite this claim, the recording sessions did not truly begin until March 12, 2007, over three months later.^[2]

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 to record is as close to 100 percent as possible.^[19]

In January 2008, a statement was made by Stereowarning.com that the album would be delayed until September of 2008 ^[20], but was quickly denied by Metallica's management since an album without a defined release date can not be "delayed."

On April 15, 2008, LP versions of Metallica's first two albums Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning were released. Both LPs came with surprise inserts directing fans to the link http://www.missionmetallica.com. According to the website, new information is to be released pertaining to the new album on May 12, 2008. The website, officially a WB site, promises to give new material in May while the band is on tour.

[edit] Recording process

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."^[21]

On March 14, 2007, the band's official website issued the following statement: "Metallica left the comfort of HQ this week to descend upon the greater Los Angeles area to begin recording their 9th original album. This is the first time they've recorded outside of the Bay Area since they spent an eternity at One-On-One Studios recording The Black Album in '90 and '91."^[22]

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.^[23] 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.^[24] He predicted the album would be out in February 2008. He also revealed that the songs they are working with are quite long. By December 2007, it was reported by Rolling Stone magazine, that overdubs and Hetfield's vocals still had yet to be recorded.

On January 21, 2008, through pictures on Metclub.com's "Top Secret" section, it has been revealed that Hetfield began recording vocals for the album.

On February 29, 2008, according to Sterlingsound.com, it was discovered that Ted Jensen from Sterling Sound Studios will be mastering the new record. Supposedly, he signed on to do it on August 24, 2006. Their name has since been removed from Ted Jensen's list of projects, however.^[25] According to Blabbermouth.net and other sources, Greg Fidelman, who has served as engineer for the recording process, has also been tapped to mix the album.^[26]

[edit] Sound

The band has been reported to have returned to performing in E tuning, as they did on their first five studio albums, to complement James Hetfield's vocals. The band had previously played in E flat during the recordings of Load and ReLoad, and dropped C on St. Anger.

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 explains further, "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 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum described his impressions of the unfinished songs:

“	Lars [Ulrich] is a good friend of mine. He played me the demos from San Francisco, and I turned and looked at him and I said, 'Master that shit and put it out.' It's ridiculous. The demos were sick. Eight-minute songs, all these tempo changes, crazy fast. It's like, 'Dude, don't get slower when you get older, but don't get faster!? How are you gonna play this live?' And then me and Lars were out partying all night, and he had to go in the studio the next day and do this stupid like nine- or ten-minute song, and I was laughing at him — because he played me the demo of it, and it was [sings really fast drum part], so fast. I called him, and said, 'Dude, how are you feeling?' He was like, 'Dude, I'm hurting.' They're cutting everything to tape, no fuckin' ProTools — live, no clicks. Bitchin'. I dig it. I'm really excited for them."	„
—Matt Sorum[28]

When asked on whether the material represents a return to the "old school," Ulrich replied:

“	I hate to be that specific, because six months from now people are gonna go, 'What the fuck? Lars lied to us!' But it feels that way to me. It's been no secret that Rick [Rubin, producer] suggested to us that we use a couple of those records as reference points — that we spend some time kind of accessing that headspace. So when we would come to forks in the road, sometimes the exercise became, 'What would we have done at this point in 1985?'	„
—Lars Ulrich

In a recent interview with Virginia Fuel, MetClub's Virginia's local chapter, Lars Ulrich's long-time assistant, Steve Wiig, revealed some new details about the album's sound, and explained that the lyrics were written by Hetfield alone again, unlike on St. Anger:

“	I hear it all of the time. I can't get away from it. I'm usually in or around the studio with them. There's some fast stuff, heavy stuff, slow stuff. There's some stuff on there that sounds a little bit closer to the "Fade to Black" / "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" / "One"-style. the clean riff thing, a great melody. Verse stuff with the heavy chorus and the ending blows the shit out of the roof. It's cool to hear them doing that kind of thing again. [...] So far — as far as I know — James is doing all of the lyrics, and not necessarily like what was done for "St. Anger". I’d imagine Rubin would want James to go off into his own world and tap into his own things and get lyrics that come from the heart. I think James' track record has definitely shown he is capable of coming up with some deep lyrics when he taps into it on his own. I'm anxious to hear what he digs up lyrically.	„
—Steve Wiig[29]

On May 11, 2008, as promised on the website, Mission Metallica, a teaser trailer for the new album was released, which reveals a more layered sound rather than the more chaotic predecessor, St. Anger. It has been widely debated amongst the fanbase as to whether the sound is closer to that of the 1990s or the 1980s. However, it is agreed that it is a very different album from St. Anger. The trailer has demonstrated that unlike St. Anger, the new album will contain "many" guitar solos. Also Lars Ulrich says this album will be a high point album in Metallica's career. This comes from a recent interview in Spin magazine

[edit] Media impressions

Six tracks out of the ten track album were revealed to members of the UK music press at a listening party on June 4, 2008, where it was confirmed that there are two epic eight minute songs present on the album, one possibly called "Flamingo", and another called "Die Hard". No official track titles have been confirmed yet. Other known working titles include "Show Your Scars", "My Apocalypse", and "Death Is Not the End".

The lead single, the name of which has also not yet been confirmed, is described as the most downbeat track on the album, and is said to be reminiscent of their 1990 Grammy-winning epic breakthrough single "One". The band have reportedly abandoned the solo-free approach that they followed on St. Anger, returning to complex, multi-layered arrangements such as those typically found on ...And Justice For All. The album was also described as lasting 75 minutes, and being made up of ten tracks.^[30].

[edit] Possible track listing

During their Escape from the Studio '06 tour, the band debuted two songs, temporarily titled "The New Song"^[15] and ""The Other New Song "^[17] respectively. Notably, the two songs mark the first official writing credit for bassist Robert Trujillo on any Metallica song. 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.^[31]

"The New Song" debuted on the European leg in Berlin, Germany. The song, as performed, is approximately seven minutes long. The title is rumored to be "Death is Not the End" as Hetfield repeatedly sings the line throughout the song.^[15]

"The Other New Song" debuted August 12, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, and is much shorter, taking just below four minutes to perform.^[17] 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".^{[citation needed]}

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. Kirk Hammett stated in the Some Kind of Monster movie that he was bored with traditional melody, as proven on the St. Anger album.

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".^[32] It should be noted, however, that most 'working titles' under Metallica are humorous in nature and are almost always changed before an album is released.

In an interview with Examiner.com, Ulrich stated that "There's one called '19', '10', 'German Soup', 'Glass Cow', 'Casper', 'Exploiter', and even 'Black Squirrel'. Just names that relate to where the idea came from, like Glasgow, Scotland became 'Glass Cow.' And when we don't have anything clever to call it, we just call it a number. They're just silly working titles." ^[33]

The trailer released on May 12 via Mission: Metallica A teaser trailer released on May 11, 2008 by Mission: Metallica sees Lars discussing his drumming on a track referred to as "Hell and Back".

On May 21 2008, the rumoredly title song "Death is Not the End" was featured in "1st Fly on the Wall" for the band's "Mission: Metallica" webpage. The song was played slower than originally played live. Note that this song could have been written sometime in 2006, therefore just a working version of the riff.

[edit] References

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