Metallica frontman James Hetfield has explained why the rock titans have named their new album 'Death Magnetic.'

Pretty much self-explanatory, the 44-year-old said that it's a homage to dead rock stars and also the fact that the band members are becoming more fixated with mortality.

He explains: "('Death Magnetic') started out as kind of a tribute to people that have fallen in our business, like Layne Staley and a lot of the people that have died, basically — rock and roll martyrs of sorts. And then it kind of grew from there. Thinking about death...just like a magnet, some people are drawn towards it, (and) other people are afraid of it and push away.

"The concept that we're all gonna die sometimes is over-talked about and then a lot of times never talked about — no one wants to bring it up; it's the big white elephant in the living room. But we all have to deal with it at some point."

Metallica also unveiled the album's track-listing earlier this week, which is as follows:

1. That Was Just Your Life
2. The End Of The Line
3. Broken, Beat & Scarred
4. The Day That Never Comes
5. All Nightmare Long
6. Cyanide
7. The Unforgiven III
8. The Judas Kiss
9. Suicide & Redemption
10. My Apocalypse

(by Scott Colothan)