"We do have a lot of musical ideas, we have something called 'the Riff Bank,' and the Riff Bank keeps getting bigger and bigger, still, to this day," Hammett said. "I'm writing stuff, Rob's writing stuff, James is writing stuff, Lars is writing stuff, continually expanding the Riff Bank.

"So, it doesn't look like we're going to be putting out an album any time soon this year, it would be an amazing stroke of luck and grace if our album came out next year.

But then he added "I think it's a more sober statement to say that the album will probably come out in 2015. That's a sober, realistic thing ... but we're psyched about it."