And the Producer of the New Metallica Album Is…

…Greg Fidelman.

This according to a new Alternative Press interview with guitarist Kirk Hammett:

“We’re pretty much doing it with Greg Fidelman. He is in the mix. As far as what the final outcome will be, I don’t know. We have not brought in any [other] producer and it looks extremely [unlikely] we’d bring one in this late into the project.”

Fidelman is not a surprising choice: for one thing, he’s worked with Metallica on multiple projects in the past; for another thing, Hammett basically already confirmed him as producer a year ago; and for another another thing, if you know what he looks like (which I did not until two minutes ago), you probably spotted him in a recent studio pic released by the band.

But is a Fidelman a good choice? Like I said, he has a history with Metallica… but that history is not great: not only did he produce Lulu, but he did the legendarily terrible mix on Death Magnetic. But he has a ton of other credits, too (including working with Slipknot, Slayer and High on Fire), and he had nothing to do with any of Metallica’s other lackluster releases, including the dreaded St. Anger.

In other words: when the new Metallica album sucks, it will probably only be a little bit Fidelman’s fault. Thank heavens for small victories.