Lars Says Metallica Album Now Tentatively Set for Next Year.

Metallica fans who've been grooving on the band's new track "Lords of Summer" should take their sweet time learning every note because it may be all the new Metallica music they'll hear for a while. Drummer Lars Ulrich just wrapped an interview with Argentinian television station TN, and said, "We're writing away.  We've got some good ideas.  Our biggest problem is not the ideas.  Our biggest problem is time."

This echoes an interview Ulrich gave a month ago to Rolling Stone, in which he said, "Unless there's what's called an 'Act of God,' I would hedge my bets that '201' would be the first three digits in the release year [of the next Metallica album]."

Ulrich told TN, "Metallica is busier than ever, and it just as though there's more and more going on and the days get shorter and shorter.  Hopefully we will be done writing this year, and next year we should record and hopefully have a new record out."

Now that the band's wrapped its string of South American dates which closed on March 30 in Argentina Metallica has a two-month touring hiatus before playing a string of European festivals this summer.

During that time, Metallica's self-titled album known by almost everyone as The Black Album could surpass 16 million in sales.

To date, the 1991 album has sold approximately 15,971,000 copies. According to Billboard, Metallica sells between 2,000 and 3,000 copies of The Black Album per week, and therefore it should hit the 16 million mark sometime in June or July.