Rejoice, Metallica fans! The wait for a successor to 2008's Death Magnetic has been long and the band is inching closer to completion. Giving small updates along the way, the thrash legends have been eyeing a 2016 release and drummer Lars Ulrich has provided the biggest update yet, revealing the album will be finished over the summer.

“We’re now coming towards the end of the musical creative process," Ulrich began telling Metal Forces, "and we’re starting to look ahead and the process of how we’re gonna share this record with the universe." Discussing Metallica's timeline, he explained, “The month of June is basically when we’re gonna sit down and figure what we’re gonna do with it all; what we’re gonna call it and what’s gonna be on it."

In mid-March, guitarist Kirk Hammett stated Metallica were once again working with producer Greg Fidelman (Death Magnetic). Lars detailed the producer's dedication, adding, “Greg Fidelman is 24/7 on this record and has been since last summer. He’s doing an insanely great job and has been putting his heart and soul in it pretty much every waking moment of his life in helping us engineer and produce this record”.

Shifting his focus to what all Metallica fans are looking to hear, Ulrich expressed hope the new album will see a 2016 release, but didn't confirm it when he said, “If the record doesn’t come out this year then it won’t be because it’s not done. It will be because there’s some sort of cosmic reason that it would be smarter to hold onto it until next year. But the record will be done this summer."

Metallica have been working on the new album for some time, but have kept busy with a number of other activities this year. The band served as ambassadors for Record Store Day 2016 for the second time, celebrated the fourth annual 'Metallica Night' at the San Francisco Giants baseball stadium, Robert Trujillo and Hammett teamed up on a local beach cleanup and they released stellar remastered deluxe edition box sets of Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning.

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