METALLICA have revealed that they plan to start work on the follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" next year.

In an interview with the Pulse Of Radio, Lars Ulrich revealed that the band have very few live dates scheduled next year and that they would be hitting the rehearsal studios once more in the spring.

"There's a bunch of balls in the air for 2011, but I think the main one is we really want to get back to writing again," drummer Lars Ulrich told the Pulse of Radio. "We haven't really written since, what, '06, '07, and we want to get back to kind of just being creative again. Right now we are going to just chill out and then probably start up again in, I'd say, March or April, and start probably putting the creative cap back on and start writing some songs."

And despite the band only having a handful of live shows planned for 2011, it seems that METALLICA want to head back out on the road once again as part of the 'Big Four' (METALLICA, MEGADETH, ANTHRAX and SLAYER).

"The vibe on this thing is so big, we'd be stupid to ignore it," he said. "You know on your iPhone, you can move the weather maps up and down? Well, the 'Big Four' is quickly moving up to the top in terms of potential occurrences for the next couple of years."

Source: www.PlanetRock.Com