While Metallica have been sifting through riffs and reportedly narrowing down the potential songs they want to put on their next album, a couple of James Hetfield comments during a recent video interview on his guitars should generate excitement among the band's fans.

"I tell ya, we're recording right now, and there's the number one guitar, there's the number two guitar, there's the number three. And here's the third-track guitars that just sound different. They all sound different," reveals Hetfield in the video below, confirming later on in the interview (see his quotes below) that the recording is for a new album.

In the piece, Hetfield praises his history with ESP guitars and EMG pickups and how the companies have helped him realize his music vision. Fans get a closer look at the Truckster guitar that Hetfield reveals comes out of his "car world." The other two instruments featured are his Iron Cross guitar, which looks like it's been through a few World Wars, and Hetfield's Snake Bite guitar.

The rocker concludes, "Unbelievable to be sitting here thinking I designed a guitar, well, I'm not gonna take all the credit obviously, but taking a classic shape, redesigning and thinking of the idea for developing a clean pickup that had dynamics, that had power and having it sit here in a guitar and me recording an album after 35 years with it -- awesome."

Not counting Metallica's collaboration with Lou Reed on the 2011 disc Lulu, it's been seven years since the band has released a proper studio album (2008's Death Magnetic).

To learn more about Hetfield's ESP Guitars, check here, and his pickups right here.

James Hetfield Reveals Metallica Recording News in Discussion About Guitars + Pickups

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