Metallica are currently in the process of moving on to their next record, but drummer Lars Ulrich recognizes exactly what their past release, 'Death Magnetic,' has meant to their career. Speaking with United Arab Emirates paper The National, the drummer says that the disc may be a difficult one to follow, but he feels up to the challenge.

Ulrich explained in a video interview, "Obviously 'Death Magnetic' was very positively received all over the world and I'm thankful for that. We're now in the middle of making a new record, and so when you make a new record, you have a tendency to revisit the one you made previously, and I've heard a little bit of 'Death Magnetic' over the last couple of months and it still sounds fantastic, so it will be a difficult record to follow."

As for the new disc, the drummer says, "We are just writing at the moment. We haven't started [tracking] the record. These live shows help indirectly. When we are writing at home a lot, we get kind of locked into that, so getting a chance to come to Abu Dhabi and then Cape Town and Johannesburg next week is kind of Metallica getting out of the house for two weeks. When we come back to write, we are inspired by the energy of playing to 20,000 people each night."

Ulrich also took the opportunity to speak about how launching their own label, Blackened Recordings, will affect future release and reissue plans. He explained, "Now that we own our own records and have our own label, we will probably take each album, remaster them and make them available with the latest technology and find interesting outtakes and additional things that will make it special. You do want to cash in, so if you can put some packages together that are special to the fans, it is worth doing."

 

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