Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Says Band Likely Eyeing 2014 for New Album

Metallica may be starting to think about new music, but given the wealth of material they have to choose from and the amount of time it typically takes for a band of their stature to maintain the excellence they’ve provided over the years, fans might want to be cautiously optimistic on when that new record will arrive.

In fact, drummer Lars Ulrich pretty much confirmed that it won’t be a quick turnaround during an interview with Vancouver radio station 99.3 ‘The Fox.’ The musician stated that he doesn’t expect a new album to arrive until 2014.

Though the band are nearing the end of their two major “to do” list items they had scheduled for this year – the Orion Music + More Festival and shooting a 3D concert film – Ulrich says he still feels that progression on a new album will take a while.

He explained, “I wouldn’t use the word ‘close.’ I mean, obviously, in the context of, say, the age of planet Earth, we’re pretty close. But in the context of, say, other things, there may be one or two football seasons, or one or two baseball seasons, or one or two hockey seasons … We’ve gotta do this movie, and we’re gonna get back to writing when we’ve done this movie.”

He would add, “I would say late ’13 or early ’14. It’s difficult to image … I think even late ’13 may be a bit optimistic. I would say hopefully we can realistically get a record out probably about a year and a half from now, so maybe early ’14.”

As Ulrich explained, right now the biggest thing on their mind is the new 3D concert film. The band will shoot it Aug. 24-25 in Vancouver on a giant stage backed with plenty of visuals from throughout their career that will help serve the story told with the film. The drummer states, “The rest of the film will be shot the next two or three weeks after the shows in Vancouver, into the middle to the third week of September.”

Listen to Lars Ulrich’s Interview with 99.3 ‘The Fox’