Producer Rubin pushed Metallica to a higher level on latest CD

"Death Magnetic" marks the ninth studio CD of original material for Metallica. For bassist Robert Trujillo, it marks his first studio recording with the band.

"It was a wonderful experience," Trujillo said during a phone call from the Sprint Arena in Kansas City, Mo. "It was an eye-opener for me to see how this band works in the studio.

"First off, the work ethic is very strong," he said. "And I really felt like I was a part of the songwriting and recording of the album."

While Metallica has a history of in-band squabbles during recording — especially between guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich — Trujillo said the two band leaders are passionate and want what's best for the group.

"It was interesting seeing Lars and James go at it and write songs," Trujillo said. "It was unreal."

Adding producer Rick Rubin into the mix only pushed the band — which also features lead guitarist Kirk Hammett — to a higher level of music writing.

"Rick and the band were all on the same plane," Trujillo said. "He guided us into writing songs we would do as if we were looking to sign a recording contract. It was like the beginning of our career.

"Rick knew what he was doing," Trujillo said of the award-winning producer. "There were times when he'd tell us to try something and it only made sense later. Sure, we wanted to punch him and jump on his back and pull his hair out sometimes, but he pushed us to write better songs."

The songs were written over a long period of time, Trujillo said. "By that I mean we always had a recorder we would use when we were jamming. We wrote a total of 25 songs, recorded 14 and chose 10 for the album."

Choosing the songs wasn't a walk in the park."No," he said, "we butted heads on some of them. And we hated to see some go. One in particular we didn't include on the album because it wasn't finished. But I think it would have been the most brutal and hard song Metallica has ever written.

He thinks the songs on the album are good for the band. "It's nice to see us embrace the metal again. And we had a bunch of music. That's why the songs are long again.

"What's more is, the band members agreed 90 percent of the time on the choice of songs for 'Death Magnetic,' which, of course, is not congruent with the band's history," he said with a laugh.

Metallica also recorded the album in Los Angeles, as opposed to San Francisco.