METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett recently participated in NME‘s game show-style quiz segment called “Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?!” and was asked about the group’s new studio album.
The concept of the game sees musicians being asked questions about moments throughout their careers. Kirk faired moderately throughout the majority of the game however when it came to his final question – ‘What’s the deal with a new Metallica album?’ – Kirk clammed up rather swiftly.
Kirk said: “I’m not supposed to talk about the new album. Everyone warns me ‘Don’t talk about the new album!’, so you can ask me 20 questions and it’ll just be me politely finding different ways of me saying ‘I can’t talk about the new album!'”
The next METALLICA studio album will be the band’s first since 2016’s “Hardwired… to Self-Destruct“.
While giving another recent interview about his new solo EP “Portals“, Kirk mentions METALLICA engineer Greg Fidelman a couple of times, noting that the producer “had his hands full with all sorts of other Metallica stuff” and “he was up to his neck in other Metallica commitments.”
That being said, we’re just gonna optimistically assume there is a new METALLICA album on the way. Which is very welcome news.