Metallica have announced their first studio album for eight years. Hardwired … to Self-Destruct, their first record since parting company with Warner Bros, will be released on their own Blackened Recordings label on 18 November.
The album, which comes as a double CD or double vinyl set, was produced by Greg Fidelman, who produced and engineered its predecessor, Death Magnetic. We’re obviously beyond psyched to share new tunes with all our friends out there,” said drummer Lars Ulrich. “We’ve been rockin’ along in the studio with Greg on and off for the last 18 months firing up the creative engines again. Putting new music out there, getting in your faces once again and all that comes with it is what we love to do more than anything else, so strap yourselves in.”
The band also released the video for the first single from the new album, Hardwired.
Metallica’s recording career has been sporadic over the past 20 years. Since releasing Reload in 1997, they have put out only two studio albums: St Anger in 2003 and Death Magnetic in 2008.
There have been other projects, though. In 2013, they released the concert film Metallica: Through the Never, which combined live footage with a confusing storyline about a young roadie adrift in an apocalyptic city. The film was a commercial failure, taking only $3.4m at the US box office. That same year, they also played a 10-song gig in Antarctica, performing to competition winners, research scientists and ship crew at Carlini base, the Argentinian outpost on King George island.
The tracklisting for the new album is:
Disc one
1 Hardwired
2 Atlas, Rise!
3 Now That We’re Dead
4 Moth Into Flame
5 Am I Savage?
6 Halo on Fire
Disc two
1 Confusion
2 Dream No More
3 ManUNkind
4 Here Comes Revenge
5 Murder One
6 Spit Out the Bone