METALLICA Guitarist KIRK HAMMETT Talks 72 Seasons - "I Had A Whole Vocabulary Of Licks That I Was Going To Bring To This Album"

04:18 Tuesday, 2 May 2023

Kirk Hammett - The 72 Seasons So What! Interview, conducted by Steffan Chirazi, appeared online earlier today, May 1st. An excerpt follows:

SC: It’s interesting you bring up your leads because I think they’re the best solos you’ve put on a record in probably 20 years. The last solo on “Inamorata” is stunning. I was told that you played it, and then that was that.

KH: "Yeah. I mean, that’s pretty much how all the leads were done. I went in there and improvised. But leading up to that, I had to really make sure that my chops were together and I was playing at a level that I felt confident with. I had a vision of what scales to play, what guitar licks to play. I had a whole vocabulary of licks that I was going to bring to this album. I repeat myself quite a bit, but that’s intentional because I wanted there to be a vocabulary, my vocabulary I’m going to use for this album and this album alone. I just had a lot of pent-up energy and emotions from the lockdown. I needed to get it all out, and I got it out in one of the few ways I know. And that’s just by f*cking playing guitar."

SC: The guitarists in Metallica are (I think) probably the two most emotionally expressive people in the band.

KH: [Grinning] "We’re both basket cases!"

SC: One of them sifts emotions through his lyrics, and the other through his guitar. Talk a little about your guitar partner’s lyrics, reading where he was going with those, and taking in his journey. And, if you can, reflect that off the man you’ve spent three-quarters of your life with? How did it make you feel? Did you relate to what he was writing about? Do you relate to what he’s writing about? How much does that influence your channeling of the music when you sit down to play?

KH: "When it comes to James’ lyrics, I try not to single out any song or any individual lyric. I take in the overall sentiment. And I pick up on that sentiment. It’s really consistent because usually, the sentiment is very close to something I’ve experienced or am experiencing. When it comes to James and I, mentally, we’re both challenged and sometimes we’re challenged in a similar way. So sometimes, when he’s going through stuff, I can totally relate. And I feel like sometimes, when I’m going through stuff, he can relate to me. So, we have this weird emotional connection. We connect in a place that is not comfortable. It’s not warm and fuzzy. It’s actually a scary place and a place that’s super challenging and dark. I distill it differently. He distills it differently, but that place is very, very similar. So, it’s very easy for me to relate to James pretty much all the time on those issues, and I feel like he can relate to me a lot of times with my issues. And those issues are ongoing, continuous, and consistent because it’s life for us, just life. And the recognition of it is important."

"So, when I hear him singing about certain things, I get the sentiment. I get a gut feeling. I try not to dissect it, or categorize it, or compartmentalize it. I see it as a certain raw emotion, and I go from there. And for me, doing that is pure. It feels honest, and it feels right, rather than picking up certain things here and there. No, I want to take it all in, get a global view of the raw emotion and the sentiment, connect it to what I feel, and then take it to a different place through my guitar playing. That’s something I’ve done for a long time now."

To read the complete interview with Kirk Hammett, visit this location.

Presented worldwide by Liquid Death and Blackened American Whiskey (in North America only) and promoted by Live Nation, Metallica’s M72 world tour sees the band in a complete 360 performance playing two nights in every city it visits - with each No Repeat Weekend featuring two completely different setlists and support lineups. Up next, Metallica’s M72 World Tour will be making its way to Paris, Hamburg, and Gothenburg before proceeding to North America.

Metallica's complete 2023 / 2024 tour schedule can be found here.

Fans can also now access the M72 World Tour Interactive Map and discover pop-up shops, film screenings, Q&A sessions and everything Metallica happening in each stop on the tour, here.

A portion of proceeds from every ticket sold will go to the band’s All Within My Hands foundation. Founded in 2017, AWMH’s efforts to assist and enrich the lives of members of the communities who have supported the band have raised nearly $13 million – providing $5.9 million in grants to career and technical education programs in the US, over $2.5 million to combat food insecurity, and more than $3.2 million to disaster relief efforts worldwide.

For further information on the tour, enhanced experiences and more, head here.

Metallica’s new album, 72 Seasons, was released on April 14th via the band’s own Blackened Recordings. Produced by Greg Fidelman with frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and clocking in at over 77 minutes, the 12-track 72 Seasons is Metallica’s first full length collection of new material since 2016’s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.

For a full listing of configurations and further information, go to metallica.com.

72 Seasons tracklisting:

"72 Seasons"
"Shadows Follow"
"Screaming Suicide"
"Sleepwalk My Life Away"
"You Must Burn!"
"Lux Æterna"
"Crown Of Barbed Wire"
"Chasing Light"
"If Darkness Had A Son"
"Too Far Gone?"
"Room Of Mirrors"
"Inamorata"

"Inamorata" video: