Metallica are the ambassadors for this year’s Record Store Day (this Saturday!), but in addition to their live CD, Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite, Metallica!, the band is also prepping two massive box set reissues and their long-awaited 10th album.

“We were trying to dig deep,” drummer Lars Ulrich told Billboard of the reissues. “Because with YouTube and these things today, it’s harder to find exclusive content that no one has seen before. Our goal was to create something special.”

The day before RSD, April 15, Metallica will issue deluxe reissues of their first two albums: 1983’s Kill ‘Em All and 1984’s Ride the Lightning. The former will span four LPs and five CDs with a DVD. It will boast rough mixes of a handful of songs, live recordings and band interviews. Ride the Lightning will be pressed on four LPs and six CDs with a DVD, a hardcover book, a mini-book of handwritten lyrics and three posters. You can hear the reissues and see photos of the box sets at the bottom of the page.

Metallica intend to continue reissuing their entire catalog. “Over the next few years, we’ll get into subsequent records,” Ulrich said. “And we’re going to bring out some really cool things -- partly because with the later albums we have a better idea of where everything is! But every record will be a bit of a different process.”

In the midst of all of these projects, they are also juggling a brand-new album -- their first in eight years. “We’re getting there,” Ulrich said. “I think it’s going to get wrapped up soon. Unless something radical happens it would be difficult for me to believe that it won’t come out in 2016.”

Metallica
Metallica
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Metallica
Metallica
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