PRECIOUS METAL: Metallica appears to be in...

PRECIOUS METAL: Metallica appears to be in line for the industry’s next b-i-g recording contract.

The word is that the band and its managers, Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch, will be renegotiating Metallica’s current deal with Elektra Records before any new project is delivered--and everyone expects it to be a mega-deal.

Ironically, those close to Burnstein and Mensch don’t look for any Metallica deal to be surrounded by the kind of hype and fanfare that accompanied other industry mega-deals. They’ll play it low-key a la U2.

“Cliff and Peter are too smart for that,” says one industry executive. “Anyone who knows these guys knows the last thing they want is for the press to concentrate more on the contract than on their music.”