[youtube]http://youtu.be/AiOtev3rEKI[/youtube]

Metallica’s long-awaited follow-up to Death Magnetic got a bit of a kick start when the band announced earlier this year that they would be playing a new song on their spring tour. In March, we got the first taste of the new album when the band released “The Lords of Summer,” but now that it is almost summer, we haven’t heard much else about it – until now. Kirk Hammett makes it seem like making a new album is taking a back seat to family (Metallica. Family!), or at least that’s what he told Guitar World:

“We totally want to make an album. But we have all these other touring commitments, and we have families now. It’s gonna be summertime soon, and it’s hard to work because the kids are out of school. But we have a backlog of riffs in the riff bank.

Now it’s about picking riffs out, putting them together and moving along. Later, we’ll revisit it all and see where it goes. We’ve all said to each other that September is gonna be the time when we buckle down. I know I told everyone it was gonna be last January…but that’s just the way it goes! [laughs]”

So basically, like they’re in school, Metallica is taking the summer off and will go to work in September. But at the same time, Hammett admits that they’ve procrastinated before, so the new Metallica could be the next Chinese Democracy. Given that they’ve put a song out already, the pressure is on for them to step up and come up with an album’s worth, though.

[via]