With their – œDeath Magnetic’ tour set to kick off on 21 October, Metallica have been talking up their bigger-than-ever live show. Speaking with Billboard, hot-headed drummer Lars Ulrich revealed the set-lists will draw heavily from the new album.

“These new songs are a lot of fun to play,” Ulrich said. “Traditionally I think we’ve been a little conservative when we’ve started off with two songs, three songs [from Death Magnetic ]. We’re going to hit the ground running here. We’re probably gonna learn all of them and play, I hope, at least five a night and probably rotate ‘em so we get a lot of new songs in. That’s one thing I’m definite about.”

There are also grand plans on the production side of things, too. ”[It’ll be] a completely different thing than what we’ve done before,” enthused the stick-man. ”[There’s] a big-ass fuckin’ lighting rig above us, and there’s some pretty cool stuff up there. There’ll be some shit that turns on and off and some shit that blows up … the usual stuff.” Usual for Metallica, maybe…

All this talk is very exciting, but when are we going to see that big-ass fuckin’ lighting rig and the shit that blows up? According to a leak in the Sydney Morning Herald, Metallica will be visiting us as early as January 2009. We’re keeping our ears close to the ground.