Metallica has not set foot in a studio since the release of the album Death Magnetic in 2008, spending the majority of their time touring the globe, reports Clash Music.
The long period of creative deprivation began to weigh heavily on the four musicians, who are eager to focus on songwriting for a change.
In an interview with Pulse of Radio, Lars Ulrich, drummer and spokesperson for the group, said they plan to start working on new songs in the near future.
“There’s a bunch of balls in the air for 2011, but I think the main one is we really want to get back to writing again. We haven’t really written since, what, 2006, 2007 and we want to get back to kind of just being creative again."
"Right now we are going to just chill out and then probably start up again in, I’d say, March or April," he explained. "And start probably putting the creative cap back on and start writing some songs."