Kirk Hammett spoke to Kerrang! magazine about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the long-awaited album, conditionally due in 2015.
"We cannot think of any other reasons to procrastinate; of any other things to put on the calendar to push back the start date for the new album writing sessions" he said. "We're kind of backed up into the corner now, so yes, we have to start working on the album. And I'm excited. James has, like, 800 riffs. I only have 400, but there's not going to be any shortage of ideas. It's going to be interesting to see how it turns out."
He continued: "If we can write and record an album within a year's time, from January 2014 to, say, January 2015, I'm fucking up for it, man. That's something we have not done in a long time, and that would be a bona fide challenge for us to see if we could make an album in 12 months. We did it with Lou Reed, but that doesn't really count, does it?
"We don't have any songs yet. We have little bits and pieces of music earmarked to become songs, and really, that's all I can say about it. We're pretty psyched about it. We're only procrastinating because we love being at home with our families, but we really do love writing songs together and making an album."