Metallica are knee-deep in recording their album, this much we know already, even though some people seem to think they don't even need to make a new album, seeing as though the Black Album is still selling like gangbusters.
But, the band are committed to doing a new record and they are in the studio working hard on the follow-up to Death Magnetic. One question still lingers: who is producing the album? Their last album, considered a return to form, was "executive produced" by Rick Rubin, meanwhile all the down-and-dirty engineering that goes with being a producer was handled by Greg Fidelman. So, who is behind the board this time? AltPress spoke with Kirk Hammett who confirmed the band is working with Fidelman again:We’re pretty much doing it with Greg Fidelman. He is in the mix. As far as what the final outcome will be, I don’t know. We have not brought in any [other] producer and it looks extremely [unlikely] we’d bring one in this late into the project.
Hammett also explained Fidelman's role in the studio:
The title “producer” itself is a bit ambiguous. It differs from person to person. You can call Rick Rubin a producer, but he’s not the [same] type of producer as Bob Rock, who is there for every note. At the same time, Rick Rubin gets stuff done. Greg Fidelman is a different type of producer in that he’s with the engineer always looking to try and move the project forward. And that’s different from, say, Dr. Dre, who is the type of producer who is actually making backing tracks, producing music, writing music. In the hip-hop world, Dre is a producer. It’s so ambiguous. If you go by the traditional term, we're doing it with Greg, pretty much.
