Kirk Hammett: Metallica to "Buckle Down" on Completing New Record in September

Metallica fans were given a welcome surprise when the band debuted their new "Lords of Summer" demo in March.

But it seems the metal masses will have to wait a bit longer for the release of their new full-length, which will be the follow-up to 2008's Death Magnetic.

"We totally want to make an album," says lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. "But we have all these other touring commitments, and we have families now. It’s gonna be summertime soon, and it’s hard to work because the kids are out of school."

"But we have a backlog of riffs in the riff bank," he continues. "Now it’s about picking riffs out, putting them together and moving along. Later, we’ll revisit it all and see where it goes. We’ve all said to each other that September is gonna be the time when we buckle down. I know I told everyone it was gonna be last January…but that’s just the way it goes! [laughs]"

While the band has stated that the "Lords of Summer" demo is representative of Metallica's current "creative headspace," Hammett points out that even that track is still being refined.

"Because of everything we had going on, I didn’t have time to work out the guitar solo in 'Lords of Summer'," says Hammett. "The solo that’s on the demo track was all we had time to do. I barely knew what I was gonna do and didn’t have time to really formulate anything. We told everyone that the song was a demo version…and the solo is really a demo version. [laughs] If you compare the solo in the demo version to what I’ve been playing live at those South American shows, it’s a lot better and more refined now."

Below, you can listen to the "Lords of Summer" Garage Demo and compare the solo to the updated version contained in their live performance of the new track:

Photo by Jimmy Hubbard