METALLICA will enter the studio "in the next couple of months" to begin work on its next full-length album, tentatively due in 2014. Speaking to Loudwire, the band's guitarist, Kirk Hammett, stated about the status of the songwriting process for the next CD, "We just filmed a 3D movie up in Vancouver. That's been at the forefront of our attention right now. We've been dealing with the audio aspect of that and pretty soon we're going to start seeing footage from the concert. Once that particular project kind of dies down and we complete what we need to do with that, then we're going to start writing songs. We're going to meet up and start throwing ideas together. That should be really, really interesting. I'm really looking forward to that. What's not going to be so fun is going through all the musical ideas that we have. I'm not really good at editing myself because I think it's all good. To be more thorough on that, though, I foresee us starting to get together fairly soon, like in the next couple of months. We'll start hammering away on it."

"Death Magnetic" was METALLICA's last under its contract with Warner Music Group — where the band has been making records since 1984.

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield told The Pulse Of Radio about the end of the band's contract with Warner, "It's kind of a good feeling to feel that you're free from any piece of paper that binds you to something. But over our career, we've learned a lot about record companies, the goods and evils of the business and this and that, and we're not very focused on that right now. It is what it is, and when it becomes time for us to either renegotiate or shop around or do things ourselves or something like that, we don't know. There's nothing but options, which is great."

METALLICA's 3D movie will reportedly mix concert footage with a storyline.

The band is financing the project itself and has hired "Predators" director Nimród Antal to get behind the camera. Antal filmed METALLICA's three concerts in Vancouver, Canada for use in the movie.

The show featured a brand new 140-foot-by-50-foot stage that included what a post at the band's web site called "colossal components and striking visual elements spanning METALLICA's entire 30-year career."

Photo below courtesy of Metallica.com