Producer Bob Rock has been handling bass duties in the studio thus far, but now the album is almost complete and the band has an eye towards a tour next year they are now focusing on filling the void left by Jason Newsted, their former bassist. 

The band is currently in the process of auditioning �established� bass players to join the group. Their main priority is to find someone who will fit well in the group and will stay on long term. 

"It's very important that our personalities vibe and that this person is going to be around for a long time," James Hetfield said in a video interview Posted to the group's Web site. "We are excited about jamming with these people and getting a vibe with them. The vibe is the most important. We know the people we have on our list can play, and we don't like the revolving-door syndrome."

Why begin looking now you might ask? Lars Ulrich explains, � We realized if we were going to not start the bass player thing until the record was done, then we might end up with a situation like we usually do where there are three weeks between the end of the record and the beginning of the tour and then you might end up in a really stupid pressure situation where you're trying to get a guy and you don't have a lot of time."

With an eye towards a late spring/early summer 2003 release with a summer tour to follow the band has began the preparations of associated merchandise, including t-shirts. It was when they were going over proposed t-shirts designs that the �we need a bass player� can of worms was opened. 

After seeing a couple of t-shirt design concepts that featured the group as it now stands, Lars admits that was the turning point where they began seriously thinking about finding a new bassist. Lars explained in the video interview, "... we were like, 'Isn't it silly to have all this merchandise for just the three of us?' Then we started talking about bass players and it opened up this whole big thing."

Who are the contenders? The Metallica camp is tight lipped on the subject. As we previously reported, former Alice in Chains/Ozzy Osbourbne bassist Mike Inez has been spotted in the studio with the group. Whether he will end up with the job in the end is still anyone�s guess. So for now we have to wait and see how this develops and who will ultimately become the new bass player for Metallica. 

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