 NEW YORK (Metallica Official Website) - On the verge of completing 'St. Anger', Metallica have set aside a few more to mix the album before they master it and then ship it off to the record label. During a brief moment of downtime, frontman James Hetfield gave a quick interview to their official site www.metallica.com:
"This album we're probably the most prepared for out of all the records we've made so far. Our work is together, the album title, the lyrics are done, Bob Rock's starting to mix songs. It's coming out in such a relaxed way. before it was like we needed to feel the chaos or else it wasn't real. Or we had to punish ourselves by saying, 'that was too easy. Those lyrics came too easy. I need to struggle some more with those just to make them better.' I am so done with that. I'm over that. I can trust our craft and our gift from our higher power that this stuff is just the best that it can be from us right now. I'm really looking forward to letting this thing loose. What an awesome responsibility to have so many fans anticipating the release of this CD. And especially now, the way the lyrics are, how really heartfelt they are from all of us, and to have this record start from scratch... No one came in with riff tapes, 'here I've got a song. This has to go on the record and don't fuck with it,' and all of this ego stuff. For the most part we've checked egos at the door, and tried to keep them out there. So hopefully they leave and go away. And with these riffs just starting from scratch� 'you've got a drum beat? Just lay down a killer beat. Show me what you've got, and just play along with it.' Just feeling it, feeling the power coming from the amp. I mean, I plug in a new amp and write ten new riffs, just really being so open to the freedom.  It felt so great to be all on the same page. It would be impossible for the fans listening to the album to not feel that. They might not like the songs, but they might be able to understand the rawness. Bob is afraid to mix [the songs], because he doesn't want to mess with the vibe, or he doesn't want to tweak too much. It's just levels, you know. We can certainly polish a turd (laughs). We can shine it, so it loses its character and flaws and all of its hair and all of its things that make it 'it'.It's very important for us to let the songs speak for themselves."
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