Untitled Metallica album

Metallica's 'untitled studio album', their 9th, will be released sometime in the summer or fall of 2007. The producer for this album will be Rick Rubin, known for his work with Slayer, Johnny Cash, System of a Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Danzig. This will also mark the first Metallica album not produced by Bob Rock since 1988's ...And Justice for All. According to frontman James Hetfield, the mood is much more relaxed than the recording of St. Anger. This will be the first studio album by Metallica released on Warner Bros. Records. Their last album with Elektra was the Some Kind of Monster EP. It will also be the very first studio-album to feature Robert Trujillo as the new bass player.

Songs

Starting with St. Anger, Metallica began writing more songs than would be put on an album. Whether this process will continue with this album is unknown at this point. During their Escape from the Studio '06 live tour, the band debuted two songs, cleverly titled "The New Song" and "The Other New Song". Notably, The Two songs mark the first official writing credit for new bassist Robert Trujillo on any Metallica song. Trujillo was hired after the recording of St. Anger; producer Bob Rock played bass for the entire album and shared writing credit on all the songs.

"The New Song" debuted on the European leg of the tour on June 6, 2006 in Berlin, Germany. The song clocks in at around 8 minutes. Hetfield repeatedly sings "Death is not the end", leading to speculation it may become the title of the song. The song has been compared to the songs from ...And Justice For All in terms of length and complexity. "The Other New Song" also known as "Vulturous" debuted August 12, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, and is much shorter. Just over three minutes in length, it has drawn comparison to material from the Kill 'Em All album, particularly 'Motorbreath' and 'Hit The Lights'.

Both songs are fast-paced and feature solos from Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, ending fan and critic opinion that there would not be any guitar solos from Metallica. Kirk and Lars both stated on the Some Kind of Monster movie that they were bored with traditional guitar solos and thus none appeared on St. Anger.

According to Hammett, the band has written AbOUT fifteen songs for the New album.

According to Trujillo the band has about 50 hours of music completed, however only 12 or fewer songs will make the album.