April 23rd: The band went into the studio along with Bob Rock, back behind the studio knobs.

May 4th: Short break. As ever, it wasn't without event. Lars went on paternity leave and brought back a healthy young lad named Layne Ulrich, born on Sunday, May 6th, joining Myles in the Ulrich household. James went bear hunting in Russia and upon his return expressed that he was, 'alive, safe and back from the Red Zone, bear hunting in Russia.

Kirk, meanwhile as reported on encycmet.com, went down to Mexico, visiting (among other places) the club owned by Sammy Hagar, 'Cabo Wabo Cantina' where he ended up jamming with a local band. "I came in to the club and then suddenly I heard a Metallica tune," he explained on his return. "Someone at the club yells at me, 'hey, you should go up and jam!' So I did and it was fun."

May 30th: with fresh new energy, the band once again entered the studio to create more 'sick, ugly, fucked up jams' before embarking on their second hiatus of the summer, which started on June 14th and involved long-planned travel (and summer time -yes, they have summer vacations too!) for Lars and James (not together!) whilst Kirk continued to spend time with his newly discovered sport - surfing.

He went to Santa Cruz, CA and visited the headquarters of wetsuit company, and overall beach apparel giants, O'Neill, where he surfed wiith some of their team riders.

I'll give you every detail about the recording, the music and the missing bass player as soon as I know anything.