Lars Ulrich has admitted that Metallica are only making “glacial” progress with their new album, suggesting that the record won’t see the light of day for some time.

The long-running metal band have turned their attention to following up their last studio album ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’, which came out in November 2016.

Back in November Ulrich said that he and his bandmates were engaged in some “pretty serious writing” sessions for the album, with the drummer promising the following month that the forthcoming LP would be the best record that Metallica have ever made.

Speaking to Classic Rock for a new interview with Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler, conversation turned to Metallica’s next record as Ulrich was asked how the project was progressing.

“Glacial,” the drummer replied. “These are the craziest of times and nothing is letting up.

“There’s a little bit of movement [in that direction], but it’s hard to do a lot when we’re not together.”

Speaking to NME back in September, Ulrich said that the circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic had been causing logistical problems for the band when it came to writing new music.

“Right now, I’d say the hardest thing about all this is trying to plan, because five minutes later, those plans change – that’s just the nature of the state of the world at the moment and we’re going to have to accept and surrender to it,” the drummer said.

“I think it’s a good reminder of the fragility of the world and how maybe we should occasionally pause and be a little bit more respectful and appreciative of what we have and understand how quickly it can derail in terms of how we arrogantly expect everything to be way we wanted as a human race.”

Last weekend Ron McGovney, the former bassist of Metallica, shared an old business card that the band used to hand out in their early days.