METALLICA will release its long-awaited new album, "Hardwired…To Self-Destruct", on November 18 via Blackened Recordings. The two-CD/two-vinyl set is the Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee's first studio album since 2008's multi-platinum "Death Magnetic". "Hardwired…To Self-Destruct" is available for pre-order at Metallica.com starting today in various configurations, including CD, vinyl, digital, deluxe, and deluxe deluxe versions. The album is produced by Greg Fidelman, who engineered and mixed "Death Magnetic".

"Has it really been eight years? Doesn't feel like it! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink," said METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich.

"We're obviously beyond psyched to share new tunes with all our friends out there.

"We've been rockin' along in the studio with Greg, on and off, for the last 18 months firing up the creative engines again.

"Putting new music out there, getting in your faces once again and all that comes with it is what we love to do more than anything else, so strap yourselves in … INCOMING!"

"Hardwired", the first track to be released from the forthcoming album was played for the first time earlier today during a live remote broadcast from METALLICA's headquarters in San Rafael, California. During an interview with Minneapolis rock station 93X discussing the band's performance at U.S. Bank Stadium on August 20, Ulrich stunned 93X's Pablo by unleashing the incendiary song for the first time, much to the surprise (and delight) of the station, as well as fans around the world.

"Hardwired" will be delivered as an instant download to fans who preorder the album.

METALLICA also premiered the official video for "Hardwired" today. The clip can be viewed below.

In celebration of Saturday's performance, the band will launch the official METALLICA pop-up store in Minneapolis this weekend. The store will have exclusive show merchandise and items not available anywhere else (including inside the stadium) as well as a wide selection of classic METALLICA merch. The Metallica Pop-Up Store will be located at 401 2nd Ave North and open on Friday, August 19 from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 20 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Disc One

01. Hardwired

02. Atlas, Rise!

03. Now That We're Dead

04. Moth Into Flame

05. Am I Savage?

06. Halo On Fire

Disc Two

01. Confusion

02. Dream No More

03. ManUNkind

04. Here Comes Revenge

05. Murder One

06. Spit Out The Bone

Disc Three (Deluxe Edition Only)

01. Lords Of Summer

02. Riff Charge (Riff Origins)

03. N.W.O.B.H.M. A.T.M. (Riff Origins)

04. Tin Shot (Riff Origins)

05. Plow (Riff Origins)

06. Sawblade (Riff Origins)

07. RIP (Riff Origins)

08. Lima (Riff Origins)

09. 91 (Riff Origins)

10. MTO (Riff Origins)

11. RL72 (Riff Origins)

12. Frankenstein (Riff Origins)

13. CHI (Riff Origins)

14. X Dust (Riff Origins)

Ulrich recently spoke to Citizens Of Humanity magazine about the musical direction of the group's long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic". He said: "It definitely sounds like METALLICA. It's probably a little less frenetic than the last record. The last one [producer] Rick Rubin really encouraged us to for the first time be inspired by our past. It was the first time we sort of looked in the rearview mirror. This time around it's a little bit of a different thing."

Ulrich continued: "We're not working with Rick, we're working with the engineer from the last record, who's producing, Greg Fidelman. So there's some of the same production elements at play, but we're expanding a little bit on the sonics. It's probably a bit more of a diverse record than the last one. It's exciting, but I don't have quite the perspective yet."

Ulrich also addressed the eight-year gap between studio albums, the longest of the band's career, by saying: "I think what's happened is our families and our domestic responsibilities are so important to us now, so we just have a new model. We're sort of constantly doing something but never to the point of the needle going in the red, but METALLICA really hasn't sort of shut down since around 2005, and it's a model that works for us."

He added: "We never work at 110 percent to the point where we drive ourselves nuts, but are sort of constantly working at two-thirds, you know — when we make the record we're writing and we're recording, but we're doing it incrementally. There's always stuff going on. It's the way we like it. It keeps us engaged."

Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio not long ago that METALLICA no longer wants to devote large chunks of time to any one project. "You know, METALLICA, in order for it to be true and pure and honest, has to be fun," he said. "And so the days of, you know, writing for a year and then recording for a year and then going on the road for three years — those kind of endlessly long cycles — they're just behind us. I don't think we have the stamina to do anything for those elongated periods of time any longer."

METALLICA worked on the new disc on and off over the past few years, in between other projects that included a series of short tours, a film, the restoration of some of their early albums and other projects.

Photo credit: Herring & Herring