Metallica have been working on their new album during the pandemic

Kirk Hammett has revealed that Metallica have been working on their new album during the pandemic.

Speaking to Guitar World, the guitarist said: “Well, let’s just say that over the Covid years, we weren’t just sitting around on the couch texting each other, complaining about how we couldn’t work.. That was the exact opposite of what happened! We’ve been working through the lost years – so you can draw your own conclusions from that!”

The band have spent the past few years working on the follow-up to 2016’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. In September 2021, Lars Ulrich said the band “were on that path” towards making a new album, but added: “I don't know if it's cohesive enough to call a record, but we're dipping our toes. We've been trying to stay busy.”

Metallica have a fairly quiet 2022 ahead of them, aside from a few festival dates that finish in August and the mooted reissues of Load and Reload. Does that mean they’ll have time to knuckle down and wrap up the new album? We’d like to think so. Over to you, Lars…

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