Metallica explain the meaning of their new album's title

Metallica have explained the meaning behind their new album title 'Death Magnetic'.

As reported yesterday, the band have already decided on the record's tracklisting but now frontman James Hetfield has explained his reasoning behind the naming of the record.

Hetfield said: "It started out as kind of a tribute to people that have fallen in our business, like [Alice In Chains frontman] Layne Staley and a lot of the people that have died, basically - rock and roll martyrs of sorts. And then it kind of grew from there."

He continued: "Thinking about death...just like a magnet, some people are drawn towards it, [and] other people are afraid of it and push away."

Hetfield explained most people are uncomfortable with the subject of death.

He said: "The concept that we're all gonna die sometimes is over-talked about and then a lot of times never talked about - no one wants to bring it up; it's the big white elephant in the living room. But we all have to deal with it at some point."

Metallica release the follow-up to 2003's 'St Anger' on September 22.