Metallica fans still have to wait a while before the band's new album Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct arrives on Nov. 18, but in the meantime, they've got a few words from Lars Ulrich to give them a feel for how the record fits in the group's discography.

Ulrich sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about the double-disc set, which was actually still undergoing last-minute revisions during the interview. Admitting that the ongoing work on Hardwired makes it difficult to really gain perspective on the new material, Ulrich did allow that the new songs are, in some ways, sort of a throwback to the band's earlier days.

"Most of the songs are simpler. We introduce a mood and we stick to it, rather than songs we've done where one riff happens and we go over here and then over there and becomes a journey through all these different soundscapes," Ulrich responded when asked to explain his prediction that the new album would be "less frenetic" than their previous effort, 2008's Death Magnetic. "The songs are more linear. And by 'less frenetic,' I mean there are certainly less starts and stops in the songs. It cruises along a little bit more than the last record."

Arguably more importantly for longtime Metallica fans, the album was influenced to an extent by the group's work on reissuing their classic Kill 'Em All LP — a release Ulrich admits he didn't truly appreciate until they played it live in 2013.

"Early on, I was dismissive of that record because Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets may be a little more intellectually stimulating and challenging – they were deeper records – and it wasn't until 2013 when we played it that I realized Kill 'Em All had a cohesiveness," Ulrich recalled. "It had its own thing with the speed, but it's simpler – the songs are longer but not quite as progressive. It's a world all its own. And I think there are some elements of that that rubbed off into this. I'd say there's a trace of residue from rediscovering Kill 'Em All that crept into the songwriting."

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