Well, a tentative release date. Lars Ulrich was on an interview and said something to the effects of 2013′ish.
“I would say late ’13 or early ’14. It’s difficult to imagine… I think even late ’13 may be a bit optimistic. I would say hopefully we can realistically get a record out probably about a year and half from now, so maybe early ’14.”
The BloodyDisgusting article I read this on goes on to say that they are planning on making it more like the Black album, which makes me cringe because I love their Death Magnetic album so much since it sounded like old, kickass ’80s Metallica. Oh well.
Also, here’s the interview below if you want to listen to Lars’ b.s.:

