METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told Mike Davies of BBC Radio 1 during this past weekend's Download festival in England that the group's new album will not be released until the summer or early fall of 2007. "I think we've realized that the creative process works a little slower for us than it used to," he explained. "And we're OK with that. It's not a bad thing, unless, of course, you're waiting for a record." Asked if he thought it was scary that everybody seemed to know everything about the band since the "Some Kind of Monster" movie was released, Ulrich said, "No, it's not scary. I'm proud we put that shit out there. It's just kind of weird because it's like four years ago. Everybody's kind of still assuming that that's the way it is now, which is like… couldn't be further from the way it is now. We're in the studio, no psychiatrists, no film crews… everybody's getting along, having a great time. [We're] just kind of doing our thing. Back on that record [2003's 'St. Anger'], it was just a very different experience 'cause we had to kind of get it back together. Now everything's cool."

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett recently told the Artisan News Service that the band have "about fifteen songs" written for the follow-up to 2003's "St. Anger", which they hope to release in early 2007. In a short interview conducted at the MAP MusiCares MAP Fund concert on May 12 honoring Hammett's METALLICA bandmate James Hetfield, Kirk admitted the band is really hitting the song writing groove, even busting out two to three new songs per week.

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Bands: Metallica