Despite assertions earlier this year that they would soon be taking a much-deserved vacation, the metal veterans of Metallica are still hard at work.

The band recently recorded a new song for the soundtrack to the upcoming Tom Cruise action sequel "Mission: Impossible 2" and now have plans to shoot a video for the song later this month.

Hollywood Records, which is handling the "M:I2" soundtrack, confirms that the band's contribution, a track titled "I Disappear," will be the first single from the soundtrack. Limp Bizkit's contribution to the film is also expected to get the video treatment (see "Limp Bizkit Eyes Tom Cruise For 'M:I2' Video").

While video plans are in the works, talk of the band rolling out the song at this year's MTV Movie Awards may be premature. Elektra Records, which handles Metallica, had reported on its official Web site that the band would play the Movie Awards in May, but reps for the show note that the event won't be staged until June and that they are far from lining up performers for the show.

Even if Metallica doesn't play the Movie Awards, the band is still keeping a higher profile than they had planned for this year. Speaking in late 1999 before the band launched into a brief tour with Kid Rock, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich told MTV News, "That's it. January 9 in an unnamed city in the Midwest of the U.S. will be the last Metallica commitment for a long time."

That unnamed city turned out to be Minneapolis, and the band was to follow the show with a break that was to have kept the group out of the spotlight for more than a year.

"I think it's been six years since we were staring at a schedule that was blank," Ulrich said. "We put out four records in four years now, and we always have something in front of us, and this is the first time that we don't have anything in front of us. That is both exciting and frightening."