Metallica's new album is shaping up to be a "more collaborative" effort.
Metallica's Robert Trujillo
The heavy metal titan's bassist Robert Trujillo has spoken of his joy of working together more with all of his bandmates - James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich - on their follow-up to 2016's ‘Hardwired…To Self-Destruct’.
Robert said: “I’m not gonna speak on behalf of the other guys, but to me, it feels like this could be a very collaborative [writing process].
“And for me personally, I love that. I love that we are in that head space to be more collaborative, and I think that’s very exciting for where we’re at now, the journey we’re about to take, the fact that those doors are opening like that.”
The musician praised guitarist and songwriter Kirk for having "so many ideas", while he admitted that as soon as America went into lockdown, the 'Nothing Else Matters' band felt compelled to focus on being creative.
Robert told Metal Hammer magazine: "Kirk has so many ideas.
“It’s funny because sometimes it’s literally him in the kitchen and he’s cooking, and at the same time he’s playing you a riff, or you’re sitting on the toilet and he’s playing you some ideas.
“But when we started to understand that [the lockdown] was gonna happen, it was like, ‘Hey, let’s be creative’, you know? Let’s just get on it."
He added that Metallica has always been a riff machine and never struggled to come up with new noise during their 39-year career.
Robert said: "A lot of times, when there’s a band that’s been around as long as Metallica has, you find that one of the biggest problems is, ‘Man I can’t come up with a riff, I can’t come up with any good lyrics, it’s just harder to write songs’, but that just doesn’t seem to be the problem with us.
“Not taking anything away from any other bands, but sometimes our worst riff might be another band’s A-list riff.”
Tagged in James Hetfield Lars Ulrich Metallica