Metallica always want to make the "best record" they've ever produced.

The heavy metal group - who formed in 1981 - can't imagine ever giving up making music because they love the "creative process" and always strive to make each new album better than the last.

Asked if they've thought about their plans for their next album yet, drummer Lars Ulrich told Classic Rock magazine: "It’s going to be the best album we’ve ever done! Insert the rest of the clichés – it’s the heaviest thing, the coolest…

"But all kidding aside, if it wasn’t because we thought that the best record was still ahead of us, then why keep doing it? In Metallica we love the creative process, and it’s hard for me to imagine that we’ll ever stop making records."

But the 57-year-old drummer insisted the group - which also includes James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, and Robert Trujillo - never compare their albums to their previous efforts and he wouldn't want to change anything about their back catalogue because each record represents a period in time for the band.

He said: "I don’t think like that at all. Each record to me is a picture of a time period. 1988, '…And Justice For All', that was what we did and we made all those choices, and I’m happy accepting it.

"Sometimes I think why did we do that and what were we thinking, without necessarily wanting to change it.

"But of the ones that we’ve done, it’s with 'Hardwired' that I have the fewest bewildered questions about the choices we made. "

With the coronavirus pandemic keeping the band off the road, Lars has kept his skills sharp by playing along to their most recent studio album, 2016's 'Hardwired... To Self Destruct', as well as Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 LP.

He said: “Another record I’ve played along to is Rage Against The Machine, that first album [’92].

“That has been the soundtrack to this pandemic for me. I’m just blasting those songs, and they sound more relevant and more contemporary than they ever have."