Only Metallica - DeathMagnetic

METALLICA's New Album - Death Magnetic *

Metallica new album will be called 'Death Magnetic'. It will be Metallica's upcoming ninth studio album and will possibly be released in Third Quarter in 2008 through Warner Bros. Records, the band's first record release by that label (but still remaining with Warner Music Group, which owned their previous label, Elektra Records). This will be Metallica's first studio album in 5 years, since St. Anger in 2003. It is currently unknown if a title has even been decided upon by the band. The record will be the band's first studio album to feature current bassist Robert Trujillo as well as the group's first to be produced by Rick Rubin.[3] It has been described as more progressive and, at times, melodic, featuring a number of guitar solos, and has been called the "missing link" between 1988's ...And Justice for All and 1991's Metallica.

Quick Facts

Name Death Magnetic
Releasing Third quarter of 2008
Recorded March 12, 2007 - Late April 2008 at Sound City Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre Thrash metal, Heavy metal
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Rick Rubin, Metallica

Album Art

Death Magnetic

Writing process

» 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 was no mention of plans for a ninth studio album as of yet.[4]

» 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."[5] 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.[6]

» 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.[7]

» 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.[8] Two weeks later on December 15, the band posted a video on their official website to sum up their activities during the past year.[9] » On February 9, 2006, Lars Ulrich 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."[10]

» 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 played live for years.[11] The next day the band confirmed they had chosen veteran music producer Rick Rubin to produce their ninth studio album.[3]

» 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 the 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, (except for 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:
"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. 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.[16]"
Lars Ulrich

» On June 6, 2006, Metallica debuted a new song at the Waldbuhne in Berlin, Germany,[17] tentatively titled "The New Song", just as they were revealed to be considering in a February 2006 interview. [11]

» 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.[11]

» 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.[19] 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.[20]

» 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.[2] This scheduled date was finally met.

Possible 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 "[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.[36]

"The New Song" debuted on the European leg of the tour on June 6, 2006 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.[16]

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

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.

Recently, 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.[22]

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,[20] 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".[37] 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.

Recently Lars told Examiner.com 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." [38]

In a recently-released studio video[3], Ulrich refers to a song called 'Hellenbach', a variation of the phrase "hell and back"

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.[39]

* - Wikipedia and other sources