METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo spoke to Hall Of Metal recently about a number of topics, including the band's new album, Death Magnetic, that hits stores on September 12th. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Hall Of Metal: Do you think it can compete with the first five albums of Metallica?

Trujillo: "Every album is different from each other and each Metallica album has its own personality. Some songs in this album are really amazing. For me a great album is an album that needs a couple of listens to get into it and this is what happens with this one. I like Death Magnetic but I still don't know how much I like it. It's really dynamic and very detailed. It feels alive. We recorded the album as if we were playing a live show, standing up while recording and it was was the first time I recorded an album this way. When you listen to the album you feel the Metallica past is still alive. I really love Master of Puppets and I don't know how can we compete with the classic albums, but it's a great album with its own personality and with lots of great moments. The feel of the album is that it's like a whole, like a PINK FLOYD album, not only a bunch of songs put all together. Anyway, in the end it's up to the people to decide if it's good or not."

Hall Of Metal: What has changed inside Metallica to decide to get back to the old sound?

Trujillo: "We decided that for many reasons and Rick Rubin has something to do with this. St. Anger was some kind of transition for Metallica, James felt more fragile at that moment and everything was very scheduled and planned. It was really strange. But the last years he seems to be back into shape. He's fine now he's really focused on the music. When I joined the band I was focused on my band and I was really out of touch of the last Metallica stuff like Load and Reload. I just loved the old stuff and when I got into the band the first thing I did was to ask them to play old stuff and, instead of running away from that idea like refusing their past, the guys felt ok about that. Playing old songs on tour was like they were trying to re-learn and that helped to make an album like this. The new songs feel alive and we feel we can play these songs live. The new songs sound in the vein of the old stuff but they are all new and fresh.

Hall Of Metal: How was the process of composing the new record, from your point of view as a member?

Trujillo: "Unlike what happened in the past as a bass player, I was there every day. James was a very important part in the composing mode. He is able to turn up the guitar and play about ten seconds and he's getting a new amazing riff. He is never short of great ideas. In the end, during the last two years, we recorded about 60 hours of music to listen before starting to write the final stuff. I also worked with them in the writing of the album and I have a lot of moments in this records. They have had open arms towards my ideas. They wanted my opinion constantly. For instance, at one point I was playing my Spanish guitar and when they heard me playing they said "wow, it sounds cool, use that in one song". They were very open minded about my thoughts. Every time I said I had new ideas they run to hear them. They were very receptive. At the time of recording the album I felt we were really working as a team, collaborating all together.

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