It took Metallica eight years to release the follow-up to 2008’s Death Magnetic with 2016’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct. This extensive gap could have been due to a number of reasons including the release of their film Through The Never, Kirk Hammett losing 250 riffs on his iphone, to collaborating with Lou Reed on 2011’s Lulu.  While bassist Rob Trujillo has already promised us that the next album will arrive “a lot sooner than the previous two,” Hammett revealed he has “a ton of material” already written for their next record. In a recent interview with Australia’s Mixdown magazine, the guitarist shared the following:

“When I was 13-14 years old, bands put out albums every year. Seriously, Kiss put out an album every eight months. None of this eight years between albums. None of us are very comfortable with the fact it’s been so long, because that is a long time. We’re hoping to avoid that this time around. We’re in our third year since ‘Hardwired’. Maybe we can get a bit more focus and go into the studio a bit sooner. I have a ton of material. I’ve over-compensated, so I’m ready to go anytime.”