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Metallica Announce New Album, Release Song, “Hardwired”

It has been eight years since Metallica ripped our viscera asunder with Death Magnetic, and now the legendary San Francisco metal band has returned with news of their tenth album, Hardwired … to Self Destruct, and a music video for its title track, “Hardwired,” which you can check out above.

This news comes just a few months after drummer Lars Ulrich told us that their tenth studio album was on the way and got our hopes up that the foursome would be able to follow up a great album with something just as atavistically electrifying. Hardwired … to Self Destruct will drop on November 18 and is a double LP comprised of 12 songs (tracklist below). In a Facebook Live video from early Thursday (Aug. 18), Ulrich also announced that the band would be hosting a pop up shop in Minneapolis to coincide with a concert in the city on Saturday. You can watch the full Facebook video just below.

As a Metallica fan who grew up listening to his older brother’s complete collection, I am hopeful that “Hardwired” is indicative of another explosive, careening return-to-thrash record from Metallica. I love the spare, thrash approach to this song—the galloping guitar riff, Ulrich’s tactile assault—as it really harkens back, much like Death Magnetic, to the band’s earliest work. Somehow, James Hetfield’s voice is still perfectly raspy and forceful as he delivers gems like: “We’re so f-cked! Shit out of luck! Hardwired to self-destruct.” What a perfectly expletive-filled summation of the times in which we live. We cannot wait to hear what the rest of this album sounds like.

What do you guys think of “Hardwired”? You think Metallica is sitting on a killer record or should we not hold our breath? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter.

Hardwired … to Self Destruct Tracklist:

Disc One

1. “Hardwired”
2. “Atlas, Rise!”
3. “Now That We’re Dead”
4. “Moth Into Flame”
5. “Am I Savage?”
6. “Halo On Fire”

Disc Two

1. “Confusion”
2. “Dream No More”
3. “ManUNkind”
4. “Here Comes Revenge”
5. “Murder One”
6. “Spit Out The Bone”

Disc Three (Deluxe Edition only)

“Lords Of Summer”
“Riff Charge (Riff Origins)”
“N.W.O.B.H.M. A.T.M. (Riff Origins)”
“Tin Shot (Riff Origins)”
“Plow (Riff Origins)”
“Sawblade (Riff Origins)”
“RIP (Riff Origins)”
“Lima (Riff Origins)”
“91 (Riff Origins)”
“MTO (Riff Origins)”
“RL72 (Riff Origins)”
“Frankenstein (Riff Origins)”
“CHI (Riff Origins)”
“X Dust (Riff Origins)”

Image: Warner Bros.

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