Super horror fan Kirk Hammett loves a good scare - and now he's providing one for fans with a mysterious new post on his TikTok and Twitter accounts that combines acoustic music with a good old-fashioned horror story.
Shared today, September 10, the Metaliica guitarist offers a bluesy soundtrack accompanied by a vague video of a person navigating a road lined with trees. In the caption, Hammett adds, "Read part one now," and links to his Reddit page with a long journal entry that tells quite the twisted tale.
Entitled, "I HAVE TO GET RID OF THIS GUITAR I FOUND [PART ONE]," there is an intro that explains a bit more about what's going on. A woman named Abigail Forte is apparently looking for her brother William "Wills" Forte; she's discovered a journal he wrote and a cassette tape of field recordings he had that have a sinister feel. Abigail was connected to Hammett through a friend to try to unravel the meaning and, thus, this story-soundtrack was born.
As Abigail explains in the intro, "We have decided that while we cannot allow the actual sounds from the cassette to be released, we can share renditions of the music. Kirk Hammett has agreed to quickly transpose the less complex portions of the cassette while keeping the integrity of the original field recordings intact. These you can play or loop alongside the reading of each part, to create the appropriate mood for these journal entries."
She adds, "We still advise you take precautions before listening to the recordings (such as burning sage, reciting prayers, drawing protective sigils). What you will hear are some phrases and motifs inspired by the cursed melodies recorded on to this mysterious cassette."
Will's journal entry that follows tells a torrid tale of his time on the road as a musician with some twists and turns that are absolutely spine-tingling.
Of course, like any good horror story, the reader is left wondering: Is this real? It's hard to gauge if there is a real-life Wills or Abigail behind this story. A Google search only seems to uncover info on Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte while there's even less of a trail of Abigail Forte except for a few low-profile social media accounts that don't seem to fit.
It could be that Hammett has written this all himself as an interesting new concept project. In 2012, he penned the book, "Too Much Horror Business" covering his extensive collection of the macabre that features toys, props, movie posters and more covering the gamut of horror classics. So maybe he's got the itch to now write his own scary saga. (And if so, we hope he keeps going because the writing is really good.)
Over the summer, Hammett was part of a panel for Midsummer Scream, a Halloween and horror convention. He moderated a talk called "The Original Monsters," featuring relatives of Boris Karloff (Frankenstein), Lon Chaney Jr. (the Wolf Man), Bela Lugosi (Count Dracula) and Vincent Price.
Hammett has also featured his personal horror collection at Metallica’s Orion festivals and the guitarist's own event, Fear FestEvil. And his latest work, his debut solo EP Portals that was released in April is inspired by horror movies.
As the guitarist told Goldmine, "I thought, oh well, this would be great to incorporate different eras of horror movies somehow, into the music, and so ‘Maiden and the Monster’ is kind of my representation of those early horror movies from the ’20s and ’30s. I really tried to capture the atmosphere of those films, the Gothic feel and the presence of something atmospheric and moody.”
Hammett also exclusively told Loudwire, he's ready to start scoring films, he's just waiting to get the call to do so. If any Hollywood producers out there are reading "I HAVE TO GET RID OF THIS GUITAR I FOUND [PART ONE]" and hearing Hammett's soundtrack, his line's open.
