METALLICA: HOT New Studio Photos Posted Online

Several brand new photos of METALLICA in the studio working on material for their new album have surfaced online:



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As previously reported, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich recently spoke to Revolver magazine (web site) about the writing process for the CD, tentatively due before the end of the year via Warner Bros. Records. "It's nice not to walk into the studio and all of sudden there's three cameras in your face and you have to sit down and talk for four hours about how you were feeling last night," he said, referring to the film crew that documented every detail of METALLICA's meltdown during the recording of 2003's "St. Anger". We're kind of past that phase. Everybody gets along now. These days, it's fun going down to the studio — it's actually something I look forward to instead of dreading it. And I think that's a reflection of how far we've come."



A one-minute audio clip of METALLICA's version of "The Ecstasy of Gold", the song from the classic film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" which has been opening METALLICA live shows since 1983, has been posted online at this location. METALLICA's cover will be released on February 20 via Sony Classical as part of a tribute to composer Ennio Morricone, also featuring some of the greatest names from the worlds of contemporary pop, rock, jazz, and classical music.

Metallica's Master of Puppets named most influential metal album

Metallica's classic 1986 record Master of Puppets has been selected as the most influential heavy metal album of all time by pop culture web site IGN Music. The editors explained their choice by saying that the band's third effort "built upon and perfected everything they had experimented with prior. It's the album where all the pieces come together in glorious cohesion and it's the album that finally woke the general public up to the power and the glory that Metallica was born to spread." Two other Metallica discs also made the Top 10, more than any other act.

The band itself seemed to recognize the status of Master of Puppets last summer when it played the album in its entirety on a European tour. Drummer Lars Ulrich told us that playing the entire set live has also influenced the direction of the next Metallica effort: "It was a great thing having to revisit Master of Puppets because it kind of forced us to step it up a little. You know, a lot of the fans, I think, recognized that we were kind of maybe firing on more cylinders last summer when we played the European run and so on, and I think we've got some of that same energy going now. There's a lot of attitude and it's pretty high energy."

The band is currently recording its ninth studio album with producer Rick Rubin for release later this year.

IGN's Top 10 most influential heavy metal albums of all time were:
1. Metallica - Master of Puppets
2. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
3. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
4. Megadeth- Rust In Peace
5. Metallica - Ride The Lightning
6. Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
7. Slayer - Reign In Blood
8. Dio - Holy Diver
9. Metallica - ...And Justice For All
10. Motorhead - Ace of Spades

The extended Top 25 included albums from Pantera, Judas Priest, Motley Crue, Deep Purple, Scorpions and others.