METALLICA Drummer On Next Album: 'We're Just Moving Along, Going Through The Riffs'

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was interviewed last month on The Rock FM radio station in New Zealand. Asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next album, he said: "We're just moving along, going through the riffs, trying to put some bits together, shape them into songs, kind of at an easy pace. We're trying to not get too stressed out about it. We've gotta do some dates this year, we've got a movie we've gotta finish, and so hopefully, I'd say later on this year, we should be ready to go into the studio and hopefully the record will see the light of day at some point in 2014."

You can listen to The Rock FM's entire interview with Ulrich at this location.

As previously reported, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett told the United Arab Emirates' GulfNews.com that the band hopes to release its next album in 2014, but that actually making headway on the project is "a pretty slow process." Although band members have said in other interviews that they're aiming for the follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" to come out next year, Hammett explained, "That's what we're hoping would happen. Whether that's a reality, we'll see. We're recording stuff here and there, but it's a pretty slow process."

Hammett also said that METALLICA's upcoming 3D feature film, "Metallica Through The Never", is "kind of taking precedent over anything else at the moment. We want to make sure that this movie gets our full attention and it turns out the way we want it to turn out."

He added, "From the footage we've seen, it looks pretty amazing. It is a trip seeing yourself in 3D, that's for sure! Actually, it's a trip seeing yourself on a 25-feet cinema screen to begin with. The 3D aspect makes it all that much intense."

"Metallica Through The Never" is due out on August 9.