According to a post on the the band's Facebook page, METALLICA was in the studio earlier this week "working out the kinks in the new song" that they will be debuting in South America in a couple days.

A couple of photos from the sessions can be seen below.

METALLICA's South American tour is scheduled to kick off on March 16 in Bogota, Colombia. The trek will see the band play all-request shows and introduce a new song into its set.

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett recently told the U.K. magazine Kerrang! that the band "cannot think of any other reasons to procrastinate" over the making of their 10th studio album, which is slated to begin this year. He added, "We're kind of backed up into the corner now, so yes, we have to start working on the album. And I'm excited. James [Hetfield, frontman] has, like, 800 riffs. I only have 400, but there's not going to be any shortage of ideas. It's going to be interesting to see how it turns out."

Hammett offered one reason why the band has delayed the start of work on the record, saying, "We're only procrastinating because we love being at home with our families, but we really do love writing songs together and making an album."

Aside from touring, METALLICA has spent much of the five-plus years since the release of its last effort, "Death Magnetic", on several other projects, including launching a music festival, collaborating on an album with the late Lou Reed and making a feature film.

Drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that spending all its time making an album is no longer a priority for METALLICA. "If we had to sit there and, 'Okay, boys, now you write for the rest of the year and then you spend the next year after that recording' — I would pull what seven hairs I have left, I'd pull those out and rather just stab myself in the eye with nails or whatever," he said. "I just, I couldn't do it. I mean, we love the position that we're in to be able to come and go between all these different projects. That's what keeps us alive."