Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has confirmed that the metallers will start work on their new album “soon”.

The band, who are currently working on a 3D film project, which is helmed by Predators director Nimród Antal, will start work on the follow-up to 2008’s Death Magnetic soon, Hammett told Rolling Stone.

Following drummer Lars Ulrich’s comments that the band already had “tons of ideas sitting around”, he said:

“Right now, we’re kind of preoccupied with dealing with this 3D movie that we shot up in Canada last month. So that’s kind of taking our time right now – that’s the priority, to deal with that. But once we’re done with that, we’re going to start hunkering down and putting riffs together. That’s all going to happen soon.”

When asked whether Rick Rubin would be on production duties again, he said: “I really don’t have an answer about Rick Rubin, although his name certainly comes up.”

Hammett also reminisced about his memories of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. When asked if “Whiplash” was Cobain’s favourite Metallica track, he said: “Absolutely. He told me that himself. He came to one of our shows in Seattle, on the ‘Black Album’ tour. I remember at one point, we were playing “Whiplash,” and he looked at me and kept punching the air with his fist, and gave me a big thumbs-up sign. I was like, ‘Cool. Kurt, I know you love this song. This one’s for you!'”

He added: “I knew Kurt kind of well, and I hung out with him quite a bit. He was a pretty big Metallica fan – I was surprised at how much of a Metallica fan he was. He loved Ride the Lightning. He loved that album.”

Hammett is due to publish a new coffee-table book Too Much Horror Business: The Kirk Hammett Collection featuring images of his most prized possessions from his horror film memorabilia collection.