Lars Ulrich on Metallica's future: "Of course there's new music coming… but there's nothing cohesive"

While attention has understandably been focussed on celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Black Album at the moment, Lars Ulrich has confirmed that Metallica do also have new material on their minds, too – though there's seemingly nothing particularly concrete just yet.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 along with the rest of the band, the drummer explains of the status of new ’Tallica material: "I mean, listen, we haven't been out of the house for a year and a half, and so it's very rejuvenating. And the last couple, two, three days, as we've played… Played with Miley [Cyrus] yesterday, played with Miley today, you're kind of getting your groove back, getting your spunk back, getting your confidence back, getting the band back together…

"But listen, I don't know… I know everybody's had a different version of obviously the last 18 months. It's impacted all of us in different ways, but sitting still, as you know, is not my forte. And so, just getting out again and getting amongst it is so fucking reenergising. And the last couple of days, like James [Hetfield] said earlier, celebrating the legacy of this record and so on is… It's kind of cool, but still it's a little like, 'Okay, well, what about the future?'"

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Lars continues, "Obviously, ultimately, we like the seesaw element of it, the balance, but still, it's like, 'Let's get on with it. Let's go play some shows. Let's hope that we can get through the next few months without anybody going down, keep our fingers crossed. Let's be cautious, let's be respectful of the situation out there.'

"And of course there's new music coming, there's always new music coming," he adds. "It keeps us alive, you know that… Listen, I wish I could… I mean, of course there's new music, but there's nothing cohesive. There's not a story, there's not anything to really back it up yet."

Looking even further ahead into the future beyond a potential follow-up to 2016's Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, Lars says longevity is always on the band's mind, continuing: "I think that the way we've been able to set it up for ourselves, we put into place a set-up or system that is the most promising for longevity. We may be able to ride this out, physical ailments aside, hopefully for another 20, 30 years, because of the way we've set it up. Because in that comes the space to finally respect the individual, respect the individual needs, be respectful of schedules and so on and so forth, and find a way to make it work.

"There's a lot of resources that go into that, but ultimately it makes the band healthy, and a healthy band has the biggest chance of longevity."

Watch the full hour-long chat with Zane below:

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