From Metallica.com:

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! FUCK YEAH!

From NME:

Metallica are considering 25 songs for the follow up to 2003′s ‘St. Anger’.

The album will be the band’s ninth studio effort and they hope to narrow the list of songs down to a single album of material when they begin recording in January with Red Hot Chili Peppers producer Rick Rubin.

Drummer Lars Ulrich said that the new album’s sound would hark back to 1986′s ‘Master Of Puppets’.

“What I hear sounds very lively, very spunky, got a lot of energy,” he explained. “I think that the shows we played over the summer, we were definitely leaner and kind of in better shape than we’ve been in a long time.”

The band rekindled their interest in that sound after playing the classic album in its entirety at several European shows.

“Having to deliver ‘Master of Puppets’ for three months this summer definitely revitalized some of that stuff in us,” Ulrich told The Rock Radio. “It’s been kind of fun having that in the back of our mind.”

About Rick Rubin (produced Johnny Cash’s comeback recordings) from Wikipedia:

Rubin’s biggest trademark as a producer has been a “stripped-down” sound, that involves eliminating cliché production elements such as string sections, backup vocals, reverb, and instead having naked vocals and bare instrumentation. However, by the 2000′s, Rubin style had been known to include such elements, as noted in the Washington Post: “As the track reaches a crescendo and Diamond’s portentous baritone soars over a swelling string arrangement, Rubin leans back, as though floored by the emotional power of the song.”

Rubin relies heavily on arrangements and elements of sound. On this subject, Dan Charnas, a music journalist who worked as vice president of A&R and marketing at Rubin’s American Recordings label in the 1990s, said “He’s fantastic with sound and arrangements, and he’s tremendous with artists. They love him. He shows them how to make it better, and he gets more honest and exciting performances out of people than anyone.”

He is currently producing the third Linkin Park album which is due in February of 2007. It’s said that Rubin got the band out of the nu metal stigma that followed them through their last two albums.The next album is going to be completely different.

Rick Rubin has produced records for Johnny Cash (All of the American Recordings), The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Danzig, Slayer, AC/DC, System of a Down and in addition to his current work with Linkin Park and the upcoming Metallica disc, he will also be working with U2 on their 2007 release.

All I can wonder is … Will Metallica and U2 sound like they did 20 years ago? Lars commented on MoP but will U2 have the same sound from The Joshua Tree?

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