A New Metallica Record: God Help Us

A new Metallica record is expected to drop this Spring, and frankly, I think it's time that Lars Ulrich put the drumsticks down. Their last studio album, St. Anger, was horendous. The first single by the same title was mediocre at best, followed by "Frantic", a joke of an effort to fans who still drool over the guitar licks in "Fade to Black".
Accompanying the record the following year was the documentary movie "Some Kind of Monster." I must admit, I found the piece to be very entertaining and interesting, and directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky did a fantastic job putting it together. Moments like Ulrich finally addressing the departure of Megadeth's Dave Mustaine with the man himself left you wanting more, and probably warranted a longer section of the film. With that said, Metallica (specifically Ulrich and James Hetfield) have always tried to maintain a tough-as-nails image, and with that image tainted, should the music change?
Aside from that, it seems as though Metallica are having a difficult time adapting to the state of the music industry today. Let's take a look at the fact that Metallica were the first people to publicly condemn downloading music. Trying to see things from their perspective, I understand you put a lot of time and effort into your craft, and you want to be financially compensated for that. But let's get real; Lars Ulrich can talk about how wrong it is for you to "steal" his music, then drive off in his Porsche to his multi-million dollar home and play tennis on his personal backyard court. Someone grab him a tissue! Personally, I side with the construction worker who works 60-hour weeks, drives home in his beat up pickup truck, and feels that his $15 is better spent on something other than a sub-par hard rock album. Metallica also loves waiting for extended periods of time between albums. They released their self-titled album in 1991, and waited until 1996 to release Load. After releasing Reload in 1997, they waited until 2003 to release St. Anger (unless you count the orchestra album S&M, because I don't). Now, their new record is set for Spring of 2008. Musical hunger has never been higher for the general public, people constantly want new music for their iPods, and the public's attention span has never been shorter. If they were a fairly new band who only had a couple of albums, a couple of singles, the public would have forgot about them long ago. 2003 seems like a long time ago in the music industry. It is for these reasons, and the caliber of St. Anger, that I say "Lars, put the drumsticks down!"
PS- I'm assuming the fact that Bob Rock is producing the new Offspring record has something to do with this, but Metallica opted to go with Rick Rubin as producer. The man is a musical genius, and told them to re-listen to their older albums while preparing for this new one, according to thedge.ca. I'm not surprised at all.