Kirk Hammett spoke about the struggles Metallica has in the studio and the amount of time it takes to finish an album.
The band's lead guitarist joked to Goldmine, “Yeah, y'know, it’s not getting any quicker, too. It’s just like, we have a way of working. We have a process that unfortunately takes a long time. It’s just the way we work, the way it is, the way it works as a band. And I’ve grown to accept that.”
He credited his recent solo album for alleviating the stress in formulating ideas for new Metallica material: “Putting out Portals is great for me because it kind of frees me up from that schedule. I can come up with a few tracks, record them and put them out, and I can do it on a completely different time schedule from the band. And that’s great because it doesn’t seem to get in the way of the band’s schedule because, like I say, we move at our own pace.”