Metallica frontman James Hetfield has revealed that the band are planning to start recording their next studio album early next year.

The metal titans released their last studio album ‘Death Magnetic’ in 2008 and claimed that they had amassed 600 song ideas for a follow-up in June of this year. Now, in an interview with The Oakland Press, Hetfield said he and his bandmates were “itchin'” to return to the studio and finish work on the LP.

Asked about progress on the long-awaited follow-up, the frontman said: “Hopefully it happens soon. I’m itchin’. We have tons of material to sift through. That takes a lot of time, because there’s a lot of great stuff. I know we only need a few songs, but there’s 800 riffs we’re going through. It’s kind of insane. We have sifted through a lot of the stuff and pulled the cream of the crop – it’s just sitting there waiting for us to take it to the next level.”

Hetfield also said that the band would need a break after working on their 3D film Metallica: Through The Never, which was released on October 4. “I know we do need to decompress after this, get this film thing out of our systems,” he said. “It’s taken up a lot of time and a lot of effort. We go full-throttle into something and multitasking is not what we’re after. So the next record will hopefully start some time in the spring.”

Metallica: Through The Never was directed by Nimród Antal (who worked on Predators and Kontroll) and stars the band as themselves. Dane DeHann (The Place Beyond The Pines, Kill Your Darlings, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) plays the lead role in the film, which follows her character Trip – a young roadie sent on an urgent mission during one of the band’s shows.