Photos by Patrick Dunn

For the ultra-famed metal gods of Metallica, politics is not a focus. But their upcoming album titled “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct” could apply to how some people feel about the current political state of the country and abroad. James Hetfield told BBC 6 Music that, in an increasingly polarized political landscape, the way music connects with people could work to counter-balance separation stemmed in opposing political views. Because who wouldn’t choose to listen to the hard and fast “Hardwired” versus a presidential debate?

James further addressed the lyrical themes on “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct”:

“It’s dealing with fame — and for everyone, that’s their goal: ‘I want to be famous!’ And there’s also the topic of, ‘Man, are we really doing this right?’ In the timeline of history, man has been around for a nanosecond and [I’m asking]: ‘Are we done now? Have we had our time?’ There’s a lot of polarization going on in the States, and I see it other places as well. But it just seems like you have to get more extreme to balance out the other extreme. We’ve got to find some balance in the middle here somewhere. We stay away from politics [and] from religion. That just seems to polarize people even more. We all have our own beliefs, but at the end of the day, we’re trying to connect with people and it seems like political views don’t do that as much as music does.”

Catch the full interview here.