Metal Anarchy

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich was recently interviewed by Rolling Stone about the band’s new album “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct” (out November 18). During the talk, he revealed that the effort is not completely finished yet, and that it’s partly influenced by “Kill ‘Em All.”

Ulrich said the following about what needs to be done before wrapping up the album:

“Rob [Trujillo] is still downstairs right now redoing the bass and one of the verses on one of the songs. People go, ‘What do you think of the record?’ And I don’t even know because it’s not even done yet. It’s been kind of a mindfuck this whole week.”

He also added:

“…We have all but one of the songs mixed and done. In the last two or three days, Greg [Fidelman] was going to mix the one called “Spit Out the Bone” – working title “CHI” – and all of a sudden Rob showed up in the control room yesterday to work on it. So what the fuck do I know? It’s pretty much done. We should have that last song mixed this weekend.”

Ulrich also discussed how “Kill ‘Em All” influenced the effort:

“I can’t say that there was a magical moment where we’re listening to ‘Metal Militia‘ and wrote a song. But we did play ‘Kill ‘Em All‘ in its entirety at the ‘Orion festival‘ in Detroit in 2013. That was the first time I really got into that record. 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.

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.”

To read more of the interview, head to Rolling Stone.