Lars Ulrich revealed in a recent Metal Hammer interview that Metallica have over 700 new riffs to choose from for their new album.
“James told me in Australia that he had over 700 riffs. That was slightly overwhelming. When I spoke to him yesterday, he told me that he’d been playing guitar again in the last couple of weeks. And listen, when James tunes his guitar, he comes up with three to five usable guitar riffs. It’s kind of frightening. James is not allowed to play guitar without being recorded. Literally!“
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I’m not gonna lie, I actually believe that. I don’t think anyone (who knows anything about guitar playing) can disagree with the fact that James is a brilliant guitar player, especially in terms of writing. The question is, what inspires him these days? Is it actual metal, or softer stuff? I think Lars has an answer for that as well…
“The side of Metallica that we are having a lot of fun with right now is the harder, faster, more manic, more out-of-control stuff than, say, the ‘Load’–‘Reload’ British blues stuff. Playing a lot of the full-on metal stuff like ‘Dyers Eve’ and ‘The Shortest Straw’. We played ‘The Call Of Ktulu’ in Australia. Bringing out ‘Trapped Under Ice’ again… It’s just been cool to feel comfortable about embracing that side of Metallica.“
That’s not just ‘a side’ of Metallica though. That IS Metallica, at least as far as most people are concerned. It’s the Load/Reload era that was ‘another side’ of the band. I don’t know too many people who fell in love with this band because of songs like ‘Prince Charming.’
But I’m sure everyone is happy to hear that they’re sticking to the harder stuff still.
Make the jump for a video of two Canadian synchronized swimmers swimming to a ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Master Of Puppets.’
