As for the bassist situation. Earlier this month Metallica announced that Robert Trujillio (previously of Suicidal Tendencies, and Ozzy Osbourne's band) is now their bassist (yes, its permanent!!) Which is sort of ironic because former bassist Jason Newsted is now with Ozzy after a few failed endeavors with the bands Echobrain and (complete Metallica ripoff) Voivod.
On Metallica's "Jump in the Studio" section of their website (www.metallica.com) you can watch the posted videos from the studio.. view pictures and read about the daily happenings in the studio. The site chronicalled the recording of the whole album. It's in mastering and post-production now, and Lars has even hinted that the release date may be earlier than expected. I personally have heard a few song clips on the Jump in the Studio page and it sounds NOTHING like anything they've done previously... it's completely different from Load and ReLoad.. no blues this time.. pure metal.
Metallica will be hitting the road this summer for their Summer Sanitarium tour across the US. I have 1st row tickets for the show in Columbus, Ohio that a friend and I got through the official metallica fanclub. (www.metclub.com)