"Yeah, we're trying to write [new material] but gigs keep popping up that are too exciting to stay home for," said Hetfield. "We have lots of material [we've been] working on from the day Death Magnetic ended all the way up until now.

"There's tons of material. Some [riffs] stick with me because the theme keeps coming back. Out of 700 riffs there's at least three I've played 20 times."

They also asked him what direction the music was going to take, either "old school" or like St. Anger and he responded, "I don't know where it's going yet but we've got lots of different sounds, different styles," he said. "We're certainly not afraid of jumping into past 'feels'.

"After Death Magnetic we've stopped running hard and started embracing some of our past. Master Of Puppets was kind of a core reference for Death Magnetic."

But he then was asked about the fans wanted an album that sounds like their classic "Master of Puppets" and he responded, "Let's not do that shall we," he laughs. "It's a catch-22 because I completely understand what people want. It's like they're asking you to recreate a memory in their past and you cannot do that. It's a moment of time.