Lars Ulrich: Metallica’s Progress on New Album Is Extremely Slow
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has offered an update on the band’s next album, sharing that the thrash legends are progressing extremely slowly through their songwriting process.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Diamond Head’s Lightning to the Nations album, Ulrich jumped on a Zoom call with founding guitarist Brian Tatler. During the chat, Ulrich was asked about the album Metallica began working on during quarantine.
Of the album’s pace, Ulrich defined the process as “glacial" to Classic Rock, adding, “These are the craziest of times and nothing is letting up. There’s a little bit of movement [in that direction], but it’s hard to do a lot when we’re not together.”
"It’s the heaviest thing, the coolest," Lars enthused. "But all kidding aside, if it wasn’t because we thought that the best record was still ahead of us, then why keep doing it? In Metallica we love the creative process, and it’s hard for me to imagine that we’ll ever stop making records," he added.
Metallica’s most recent album is 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, which hit No. 1 in 57 countries and was certified platinum by the RIAA. The Undertaker famously used “Now That We’re Dead” from Hardwired as his entrance music at Wrestlemania 36, setting the stage for the phenom’s final match in WWE.