"Death Magnetic" is totally different form "St. Anger". It has malodies in it" Rob Trujillo tells our Tangra Mega Rock spy Stefan "Stiff" Yordanov at Metallica's backstage before their concert in front of 50 000 people in Sofia, Bulgaria. "... But it still has its place in the history of Metallica", he goes. Hre's what Robert said to representatives of Bulgarian media just half an hour before he got on stage:

Robert Trujillo: Wow, the mud is kicking... We had a few shows on this tour where was raining and we couldn't do anything, no matter how we were trying. I mean, I tried to headbang a few times and my foot slips, you know? I was like "Wow, I can't even do that!" So, hopefully that isn't happening tonight, because it's really embarrassing... OK, let's go back to the artwork. If you go and log on... into missionmetallica.com you will see what's happening with the artwork. Everything is developing in stages, so you are getting a taste what's happening with the artwork slowly by the time the album comes out. It's kind of a flower blossoming and blossoming and finally wow, there it is, revealed! So, it's a bit of a mystery for everybody and we as a band have been finalizing the artwork and the graphic, song titles and all that. We are working really hard to get that finished too.

R.T.: Yes...

R.T.: Not really. Basically i have been in a lot of situations with many musicians and played. I had the good fortune to play a lot of different styles over the years. Back when I played with Suicidal Tendencies, you know, we played some aggressive stuff. Two, in fact we toured with Metallica. We opened for Metallica in '93 and '94 and some of that attitude and conviction, like physical attitude on the instrument I think translates well to Metallica. But then with a band like Infectious Grooves which is kind of, you know, you've got elements of jazz and funk... you know, it's kind of fusing James Brown with Slayer. It was a lot of fun, but that's not necessarily what I would do with Metallica. With Metallica as a bass player I really try to hit the strings as hard as could, be dynamic and all. When I try to relate what I do in this album it's like hitting a heavy back. When you hear the bass and the drums it's like Mike Tyson hitting a heavy back, or George Forman or that Russian Boxer that everybody is talking right now... And that's how I felt when I recorded these songs. I tracked everything standing up, which I' ve never done in my life, you know? Usually you are sitting on the floor and concentrating, but this time we were all standing up, you know, and headbanging. We recorded together and then when we were doing our own stuff, for me, I don't know about James, but for me, I was standing up playing. I was really feeling it. I thought that was really exciting. So I feel this energy is captured on the songs.

R.T.: I'd say the common thread or theme in all these songs, it's not a bad thing, is death... Now, "Death Magnetic"... People often ask "What does that mean? What is it?" When you hear the songs and you have the lyrics, just like any Metallica song, you can make your own interpretation of it. To me "Feath Magnetic" is eh... If you see the artwork, it's like a grave with magnetic waves around it. Magnetism can be ver inviting and luring and in the same way death is all around us and is going to happen at some point. But the magnetism of it sometimes draws people to it and people toy with death, whether it's suicide kind of way or it's riding a 100 foot wave, you know, or bungie jumping off some crazy bridge, just extremes. It's staying close to death and just toying with the high and the rush of that experience, but again you can interprete it any way you want. The songs are very dynamic, with a lot of different feelings. It's like one body of music, not particularly one song but all the songs together, I feel like this album is some kind of really beautiful painting.

R.T.: Very different. Extremely different. "St. Anger" was very, very raw, with no guitar solos. The sound of the drums is very different. This album has great guitar production, great melodies. You know, we wanted this album to sound big, whereas "St Anger" is a bit more garagy sounding. I think "St. Anger" has its place in the history of Metallica. For the writing and the creative process of this record and what he (James) invested, is more focused. I think in "St. Anger" he was going through a lot of stuff... Like the lyrics were collaborative in "St Anger". James wrote all the lyrics for this album and put a lot of time into the melodies. He has his fire back and his attitude... He is really fun now and he's not drinking, but he's got his fire without that. And the picture was a little different back when I joined. He was a little bit more, hod you'd say it, a little bit more shielded and guarded. I mean, yes, James and Lars are kings of arrangements, I mean, ansolutely, you know. For years I was going through the best school of arranging, like hard rock and heavy metal, i could ever go to. And I've been in a lot of situations with a lot of great writers whether it's been Ozzy or Jerry Canterell or whoever. To be in the same room every day with those two guys, developing a song, was really encouraging.

R.T.: It's a big blur, I mean, it's a massive blur, ha-ha-ha... I probably called my mum first and my wife, ha-ha-ha-ha. If I say I called Dean first, my wife is going to kill me! ha-ha-ha.

R.T.: I think it depends who you talk to. Someone like Lars will read the reviews, but overall the bottom line is that we are happy with what we created for this album and we put a lot of hard work into it and it feels right to us. Getting the mix right is what we are working on now and it's getting better. Again, what's more important is how we fell about it and that's how it stands.

R.T.: That's an ineteresting question, because actually the most creative, not to disrespect Jimmy, because Jimmy is like a metronome and he's a good person, but Lars and Mike Bordin may have, well, the time may vary... And that's not being disrespectful to Lars or Mike, but creatively, they are on another level and they are very unique players. Lars has a style that's unique to him and no one plays like Lars. Some drummers I talked to were like "Hey, how do you play with this guy? He's all over the place." And I would say that it's a lot of eye contact, you know? Because you couldbe on the other side of the stage, you know, and if there's an accent, it's not always going to be on the same place. Mike Bordin is really a hard hitter, I mean, he's a boxer to me. He not like this kind of supertechnical guy. He's more like a caveman on drums and he's very tribal and his style is unique to him, so the quality of drummers I played with, whether it's Lombardo or Brooks Wackerman, or, you know, Stephen Perkins from jane's Addiction. All these guys are top-notch players and I don't think it's like anyone guy is better than the other. I think when it gets to taht level, they are all great and it depends on what are looking for. someone like Brooks Wackerman, he's an incredible funky drummer. He's the one who did drums in Infectious Grooves, but then someone like Stephen Perkins is coming up with this crazy tribalistic funky beats. He's the one who had that all piccolo snare going 15 years ago that everybody started doing later. So, they are all great, you know? I think Lars is definitely the best businessman, ha-ha-ha-ha...

R.T.: You know, in my bedroom, but right now we are so busy with Metallica. When the machine starts going, it's seriously the busiest band on the planet.I still write a lot of that kind of stuff and some day it will happen again. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy it very much.

R.T.: I think he always likes it, but as far, as creatively, yes. I helped him to start Infectious Grooves. I mean, we started Infectious together. It's our baby. I know Rocky's got to play one song with Mike after 12 years or something, so if the the time is right and there's a right situation, may be it will happen, but that's not what I'm thinking about every day.

R.T.: There's already been a couple of jams. I mean, James came with really good stuff recently. You know, I'm going like "That's a song!", you know. In a way things are already happening. In my hotel the other day I came up with something that was really cool. The writing thing happens almost immediately. Sitting down and writing together specifically, that's a different story. That will happen obviously in a couple of years. Riffs and ideas are already happening... I have to say that there's no shortage of ideas with Metallica, so creatively we've got more to come and it will be getting better and better.

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