As an old-school metal head I have nothing for them anymore. After that piece of sh*t "Load" came out, then on TOP of that the Napster fiasco where Metallica wanted to be a martyr. Well, they got it....they sacrificed many of their fans being morons getting involved in politics whining over some mp3's....who the hell does that? If you are filthy rich already, just put out a crappy album, and changed your image to some euro-trash punk-band look....I think the last thing you should do is piss off the general public that buys your albums.
With that being said, no matter what they release they will never be the same Metallica I grew up listening to in my teens back inthe day. I still have all my pre-black album stuff like Ride the Lightning, Kill Em' All, And Justice For All, etc....but I could care less if they ever record another song, much less another album.