Metallica's So What! fifth member blog recently caught up with frontman James Hetfield, who discusses the making of the band's new album, Hardwired...To Self Destruct. An excerpt is available below:

Hetfield: "I would say that between the four of us there is an understanding that Lars and I have shared the steering wheel since day one on this, and why deny that, or why try to change that? Accept it and embrace it, and try new things."

"When I come into the studio and when Lars starts, there's this thing that we joke about all the time. I'll just sit down and goof around, warm up or crunch around and get my sound together and he'll go, 'Hey, what was that? What was that? Na, nana, n-nah, n-nah nah? Play that again and do that.' It's like, 'Dude, I don't know what I played.' 'Play it back.' 'Oh, my God, can we move on? I mean, let's play!!!' He's really into documentation and knowing histories and maybe hoarding. But he has such a memory of things, and he's really afraid of any little moment not being highlighted. I'm glad he can do that, because I can't. So it's a great team. A great team, I tell you, because he'll hear something and go, 'That was amazing." And I'm thinking, 'I was just warming up,' or you know, "I wasn't even thinking!" He's like, 'Well, that's the key,' or 'Let's do more of that,' when I'm saying, 'Let's go forward; there's something better than that.' So it's a good combination." 

Go to this location to register with So What! (for free) and to check out the complete interview.

In the clip below, shot on November 17th at the Bild newspaper offices in Germany, James Hetfield commented on a series of pictures from the band's early years. Check out the video below.