The long awaited new Metallica album Hardwired...To Self-Destruct is less than two weeks away from being released and the anticipation is off the charts. The band spoke with Steffan Chirazi about the album for their So What! magazine and James Hetfield offered more insight into the band's recent singles.

The first two songs released from the album were the title track and "Moth Into Flame." James Hetfield explains what inspired him lyrically on those songs: “‘Hardwired’ is so simple, it is not Shakespeare, I know that. But gosh, are humans really doing the right thing? You know. And in the history of time, we’re a little blip. And are we gonna be gone? Are we phasing ourselves out with electronics? Are we becoming this? Are we gonna self-destruct because of our egos and all of the stuff that makes humans human? "

Hetfield continues, "That whole sentence ‘hardwired to self-destruct’ came from a friend of mine that was just throwing it out there as a struggling addict. Is that what it’s like for us? Is our default just to die? Earlier than we’re supposed to. Wreck. Destroy our lives; are we hardwired to self-destruct? And that just caught my ear."

As for the second track released from the album, Hetfield explains, “‘Moth Into Flame’ is pretty literal. These days everyone [has] an obsession with being famous. Being popular. Whether it’s your Facebook account or walking around the street, watching someone doing selfies of themselves as they’re walking down the street. Like what? What are you doing?”

When it came to the creative process behind the album, guitarist Kirk Hammett reveals, “At the outset, I think the idea was to make an album that was similar in approach to Kill ‘Em All.” And that was an album that was pretty much driven by Lars and James, with a little help from Mustaine. So the concept was for those two to spearhead that whole creative process again in much the same way as Kill ‘Em All was done. And I’m totally fine with that.”

As for the finished product, bassist Robert Trujillo says, “To me, it’s a very relentless album. It might not be a super dynamic album, I mean like Death Magnetic, a lot of these songs, very dynamic. I don’t necessarily feel this is supposed to be that. I think this is supposed to be where we are now and what we’ve been experiencing in a positive way. And there’s gonna be plenty more journeys!”

Metallica have a few shows scheduled in advance of the new album's release. They'll be in Guatemala City, Guatemala tomorrow (Nov. 3) and San Jose, Costa Rica on Nov. 5. On Nov. 15 they have a concert in Paris, France.

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