In an official post on their website, Metallica revealed the news along with new photos from the studio. "Since this Rick dude is new to all of this, we thought it would be a nice gesture to help break him into the music business by asking him to produce our next record. We're very happy he said yes! In other words, we are psyched to share with you that Rick Rubin is producing the next Metallica album! F**K YEAH!", reads the posting.

The news comes despite a September 2005 interview with Lars Ulrich where he stated, "I would say that Bob Rock will always be our producer. You know it's almost like default. It's not whether he should produce, it's more whether he shouldn't produce it. So I would expect Bob Rock to produce it unless he's not interested."