METALLICA has a lot of music to go through before working on their next album.  Drummer LARS ULRICH tells Metal Hammer magazine that singer and guitarist JAMES HETFIELD "had over 700 new riffs" recorded.  Ulrich adds, "That was slightly overwhelming. It's kind of frightening."  Ulrich said that, in addition to the many riffs, there are "hours and hours of jams and tuning-room shindigs."

So how will Metallica find the needle in this grand musical haystack?  Ulrich says the band will "sit down and wade through two-and-a-half years' worth of riffs and jams," which will hopefully lead to them finding "a lot of the seeds for the next Metallica record."  As for all the leftovers following that process, the drummer suggested that they could use them "for ringtones or, I don't know, set up a website -- SpareRiffs.com."  If you were planning to buy that domain name, better grab it before Metallica does.