Metallica crept into their Northern California studio several months ago, and in July, the band extended a personal invitation to each and every one of you to follow along in their recording process.

The 'Jump In The Studio' section features daily updates with many exclusive pictures and a studio diary. This section also includes over 3 hours of video footage with content ranging from new music sound bytes, album information, to the ever funny studio "babble."

The latest of these 'In The Studio' videos reveals quite a bit of new information. James, Lars, and Kirk filled us in that they are "trying out" bass players. They discuss how this process started and how the "try-outs" are being conducted.

Also divulged in this video is the number of songs the band currently have for the next album, along with talks of planning a new tour in 2003.

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So come on… JUMP IN THE STUDIO.