Greece's Rock Hard magazine conducted an interview with METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo on May 22, 2007. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow (translated from Greek):

Rock Hard Greece: Can you tell us if the two new songs (Song#1, Song#2) that you played on the last tour will be included on the upcoming album?

Trujillo: "I don't think so. There are parts from one of the songs that may be in the album, but that depends on which songs will be finally on the album. We can't be sure, not until we sit down and listen to all the songs completed, to make sure that each and every one of them sounds perfect. But I can tell you that these two specific songs that you've heard won't make it, at least not in that form.

Rock Hard Greece: Could you describe the new album's sound? Lars Ulrich, just before the release of "St. Anger", had — very accurately — described it as raw, ugly and unpolished. Can you come up some adjectives for the new album?

Trujillo: "I would say that this is album is dynamic, heavy, groovin' and you'll probably be excited to know that there will be guitar solos on it! In addition, Lars remembered to tune his snare drum properly this time! For me, this album incorporates part of the dynamic and character of 'Master of Puppets', as well as the melodic style that people liked in the 'black album,' as far as the melodies are concerned. As for the general music style, much of the current material is groovy, heavy, dynamic and surely interesting. I would say that it's different than 'St. Anger' — in a good way, of course."

METALLICA lead guitarist Kirk Hammett recently told Austrian web site Krone.at that he thinks the band's upcoming album is "the best album we've put out in, say, fifteen years." Hammett added that the record contains "just a really spectacular range of songs. This time we're not afraid to refer to our past music in order to create future music. People will see that we've kind of embraced our old vocabulary again and are using that vocabulary to express new things...I think with this album we're definitely going a little more back into our roots."

Hammett also hinted that the new record features "a lot of really, really fast songs, a whole lot of really heavy stuff. We changed our approach to writing the songs...There's a lot of changes that we've made, but I believe that they are all for the better."

The guitarist said that while the band had also written some "slower and melodic" tunes, he wasn't sure if any would make the final track listing.

METALLICA has been working on the follow-up to 2003's "St. Anger" with producer Rick Rubin since earlier this spring.

The band will now head out on a European festival run before returning to complete the album later this summer. An early 2008 release is planned.

(Thanks: Johan Mörling)