why thankyou i aim to be walking, talking cliche!
i'm all for bands going in different directions from their earlier stuff so long as its good. examples are pearl jam from ten and vs to binaural and riot act. they are not as good as the first two albums imo (middle albums are the best) but they are good and MUCH better than the drivel Metallica sold its loyal fans in the guise of St.Anger.
Get the drumming right, work on the lyrics and let Hammet do what he does best and then i'll be interested. At least Load and Re-load showed evidence of a little thing called melody in their songs.