Lars Ulrich says next Metallica album will be their best effort yet

Metallica has pressure to deliver with the follow-up to 2016's Hardwired... to Self-Destruct, but Lars Ulrich has amped up the anticipation, admitting it'll be their best effort to date.

In the latest issue of the U.K.'s Classic Rock, the drummer, who turned 57 on Saturday (December 26), spoke about their upcoming effort. "It's going to be the best album we've ever done! Insert the rest of the cliches. It’s the heaviest thing, the coolest," he joked with the magazine. "But all kidding aside, if it wasn’t because we thought that the best record was still ahead of us, then why keep doing it? In Metallica, we love the creative process, and it’s hard for me to imagine that we’ll ever stop making records."

Ulrich previously told Rolling Stone in November that the band was "three, four weeks into some pretty serious writing" in — and it seems as if the mentality to churn out worthwhile lyrics is still a focus.

"Writing always makes me feel enthusiastic about what’s next. It's like, 'F*ck, there’s an opportunity here to still make the best record, to still make a difference,'" he explained to the mag last month. "To still do something that not even turns other people on, but turns me on."

This article was first published on iheart.com and is republished here with permission