It’s been eight years since the last Metallica release ‘Death Magnetic’, which was released in 2008. However lead guitarist Kirk Hammett has revealed that the legendary thrash metal band are presently working on a new album.

Hammett spoke to Rolling Stone to say how production was going:

“moving at a pace that allows us to live our lives and not have our lifestyles change too much.” The band has “a bunch of songs, more than enough songs” but none are finished. “We’re slogging away,” he says. “But you know, it’s metal. It’s heavy.”

Metallica are of course one of the most famous metal bands on the planet. Having first formed in 1981 they have gone on to release nine studio albums. With the likes of ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘Ride the Lightning’ often being regarded as some of the best and greatest examples of thrash metal.

However it has been a while since the days of widespread critical acclaim for Metallica, with albums like ‘Reload’ and ‘St. Anger’ in particular being widely panned by critics; that combined with drummer Lars Ulrich’s numerous legal battles with music download sites such as ‘Napster’ have damaged the image of the band. The legal case with ‘Napster’ certainly gave thought to the image of Metallica having become a corporate, sell out band.

Yet their last album ‘Death Magnetic’ was much better received, being regarded as their best work since the record selling ‘Black Album’ which was released in 1991 and contained well known songs such as ‘The Unforgiven’ and ‘Nothing Else Matters’.

We can only hope that this means that Metallica will kick on and produce some material closer to their older albums, as their first five albums are simply phenomenal.

Listen to my personal favourite Metallica song below: