In a brand new interview with Maxim magazine, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was asked if he is listening to any new music that is really inspiring him. He responded: "When I'm working out or driving from point A to point B, I listen more to the ARCTIC MONKEYS than anything else. Their new album that came out in May is just an incredible record. It just makes you want to go back and revisit their whole catalog because each record is so different. You'd go back and revisit things from previous records and fall in love with them for different reasons than you did five years ago or eight years ago. I would say when I think of 2018, the main musical mainstay is definitely the ARCTIC MONKEYS for me. But lately I've spent a lot of my free time seeing films."

This is not the first time Ulrich has praised the ARCTIC MONKEYS. Back in 2012, when METALLICA booked the Sheffield rockers to play the heavy metal legends' Orion Music + More in New Jersey, Lars said that ARCTIC MONKEYS' hidden heavier side made them the perfect openers for METALLICA's very first festival. "For me, having the ARCTIC MONKEYS on there is big," he said. "I think they're a heavy metal band disguised as an indie band… If you listen to a song like 'Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But…' there's almost a RUSH element in there."

Three years ago, Ulrich named ARCTIC MONKEYS' "R U Mine?" as a song that he couldn't get out of his head. "I must have listened to this maybe nine million times since it came out, 'cause my kids are fucking crazy for it," he said. "I started all my kids listening to rock music really early on. The eldest started listening to it first, then the other two picked up on it and they argue between themselves, like, 'Get your own band!' I'm, like, 'Hey, motherfuckers! I introduced them to all of you, so fucking cut it out.'"

METALLICA kicked off the 2018/2019 U.S. leg of the "WorldWired" arena tour on September 2 at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The trek will resume on January 18 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.