Western Germany was unfortunately battered with heavy rains over the course of 48 hours in July 2021. The rains led to flooding and sadly at least 184 deaths. In August of that same year, Metallica released a special limited-edition "Enter Sandman" single on glow-in-the-dark 7" vinyl, Maxi CD, and 3" PockIt CD in Germany. All proceeds from the special release at the time were donated to German flood victims.
As rebuilding efforts continue, Metallica has announced they're donating another 130,000 € to Aktion Deutschland Hilft. The band has also opened up a section on their All Within My Hands foundation for fans to donate to Aktion Deutschland Hilft as well, and you can check that out here.
As for what Metallica has been up to musically, all we know is that Kirk Hammett can't talk about it. Hammett was asked about a potential Metallica new album in a recent interview, to which he responded "I'm not supposed to talk about the new album. Everyone warns me 'Don't talk about the new album!', so you can ask me 20 questions and it'll just be me politely finding different ways of me saying 'I can't talk about the new album!'" So y'know, there's probably a new Metallica album in some form or another.
