VIDEO AUDIO So Metallica just released a new song and announced their first album in eight years, NBD

Meanwhile, in completely unexpected news, the Metallica new album was announced today with absolutely no fanfare or buildup. Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, the band’s first studio album in eight years and tenth studio overall, will be out in late 2016. (Quick editorial aside: Everybody who isn’t a music journalist is just going to call this album Hardwired.)

How did they break the news? Did they call a press conference and read from a drafted statement? Did they tease the release for weeks with a countdown clock on their website and then spring it when the numbers hit zero? Naah–they just shared a brand new-song and accompanying music video out of the clear blue sky, like there was nothing unusual at all about this particular update.

With equal fanfare, then: Hardwired comes out on November 18, 2016. The first song is the album’s title track (except it has the good sense to only be called “Hardwired”), and you can listen to it & watch the music video right here:

Plus, just for good measure, here are the complete lyrics to “Hardwired”:

In the name of desperation
In the name of righteous pain
In the name of all creation
Gone insane

We’re so f*cked
Sh!t out of luck
Hardwired to self-destruct

On the way to paranoia
On the crooked borderline
In the wake of the great destroyer
Doomed design

We’re so f*cked
Sh!t out of luck
Hardwired to self-destruct

Once upon a planet burning, once upon a flame
Once upon a fear returning, all in vain
Do you feel that hope is fading; do you comprehend
Do you feel it terminating in the end?

We’re so f*cked
Sh!t out of luck
Hardwired to self-destruct
Hardwired to self-destruct
Self-destruct
Self-destruct
Self-destruct

Pretty bleak stuff, even by Metallica standards. But the chorus, in particular, seems to capture the current national mood pretty effectively. It also seems appropriate that “Hardwired” is the shortest, most to-the-point Metallica song on a studio album since balls-to-the-wall anthem “Motorbreath,” which came out on Kill ’em All all the way back in 1983.

Here’s the complete breakdown of what will be Metallica’s first double album, courtesy of the Metallica new album update on the band’s website:

Disc One
Hardwired
Atlas, Rise!
Now That We’re Dead
Moth Into Flame
Am I Savage?
Halo On Fire

Disc Two
Confusion
Dream No More
ManUNkind
Here Comes Revenge
Murder One
Spit Out The Bone

Disc Three (Deluxe Edition Only)
Lords Of Summer
Riff Charge (Riff Origins)
N.W.O.B.H.M. A.T.M. (Riff Origins)
Tin Shot (Riff Origins)
Plow (Riff Origins)
Sawblade (Riff Origins)
RIP (Riff Origins)
Lima (Riff Origins)
91 (Riff Origins)
MTO (Riff Origins)
RL72 (Riff Origins)
Frankenstein (Riff Origins)
CHI (Riff Origins)
X Dust (Riff Origins)

Metallica will launch a worldwide tour this fall.

(Photo credits: Metallica new album via Instagram, Metallica)