Lars Ulrich has insisted there is new Metallica music - but "nothing cohesive" yet.
The heavy metal behemoths - also comprising James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo, and Kirk Hammett - recently re-released their landmark self-titled album ('The Black Album') to mark its 30th anniversary, and dropped the star-studded 'The Metallica Blacklist' covers compilation.
And though fans can expect some new music at some point, the material they have worked on so far for a new album doesn't feel ready to become one package just yet.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, the 57-year-old drummer said: "There's nothing cohesive. There's not a story. There's not really anything to back it up yet."
The sticksman recently insisted the heavy metal group - who formed in 1981 - have no plans to stop making music because they love the "creative process" and always strive to make each new album better than the last.
Asked if they'd thought about their plans for their follow-up to 2016's 'Hardwired... To Self Destruct' yet, he said: "It’s going to be the best album we’ve ever done! Insert the rest of the clichés – it’s the heaviest thing, the coolest…
"But all kidding aside, if it wasn’t because we thought that the best record was still ahead of us, then why keep doing it? In Metallica we love the creative process, and it’s hard for me to imagine that we’ll ever stop making records."
The 'Enter Sandman' rockers never compare their albums to their previous efforts and he wouldn't want to change anything about their back catalogue because each record represents a period in time for the band.
He said: "I don’t think like that at all. Each record to me is a picture of a time period. 1988, '…And Justice For All', that was what we did and we made all those choices, and I’m happy accepting it.
"Sometimes I think why did we do that and what were we thinking, without necessarily wanting to change it.
"But of the ones that we’ve done, it’s with 'Hardwired' that I have the fewest bewildered questions about the choices we made."
Listen to the full interview on Apple Music now.
