Metallica have confirmed that they have tentatively planned to head into the studio in September to finally begin work on the follow-up to 2008's Death Magnetic.

Lars Ulrich said that there’s plenty of material to choose from.

“Every time James Hetfield picks up a guitar, there are some brilliant riffs that come out of it, and I try to make sure that they are all recorded and try to do my best to keep up with them and try to put some drums in behind them,” said the drummer.

“So there are, obviously, tons of ideas sitting around waiting to be had at in terms of turning ideas of James’ into songs. Pretty much when we’re done with the [3D] movie [project] and with Outside Lands, which should all be wrapped up by early September, we’re gonna basically just concentrate on new music and try to get another Metallica record [done].”