“The sound of a band really gelling”: The Metallica album Kirk Hammett considers their “peak”
If you want to be adored, do something attractive; if you want to be remembered, do something different. In the case of West Coast band Metallica, they brought a bit of both to the fore in the mid-1980s as they joined the heavy metal fray. Throughout their crucial first decade, James Hetfield’s songwriting prowess helped to buoy the group to the height of their genre, but most importantly, they pioneered the thrash metal subgenre.
Much of Metallica’s success as the first of their kind stems from their impressive guitar ability, especially Kirk Hammett’s mind-blowing talent for killer solo riffs. Throughout his four-decade run with the group so far, he has forged a signature style of lightning-fast licks, detailed picking, and many a push on the wah pedal.
Hammett’s solo style underpins Metallica’s distinctive DNA as much as Hetfield’s vocals, but a lot also must be said of Hetfield’s distinctive rhythm guitar approach. The chugging, fuzzy chords, which invariably pound in time to the baselines of Cliff Burton, Jason Newstead and now Robert Trujillo, form the very essence of thrash metal, a style that is at once aggressive, hostile and emotionally captivating.
After forming in 1981, Metallica gained statewide adoration with the release of their first two albums but made a quantum leap with the 1986 masterpiece Master of Puppets. The album signified the beginning of a golden age for the band, bristling with riotous arena tours and iconic albums like Metallica, Load and Reload, stretching into the 1990s.
Impressively, Metallica has managed to remain active for over four decades and, within their associative parameters, still find ways to mix up their output. Still, it seems there is very little legendary artists can do to eclipse the majesty of early masterpieces. While some favour later masterpieces, few can deny the colossal influence of Master of Puppets.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2012, Hammett reflected on Metallica’s golden era, picking out Master of Puppets as the band’s unbeatable acme. “Amazing. Totally and completely amazing to me,” he said, apparently still in awe of the album’s triumph. “That album, for me, is my favourite Metallica album. We had been playing together as a band with that lineup for about three years. We were definitely peaking, and Master of Puppets, in my opinion, was the sound of a band really gelling and really learning how to work well together.”
Indeed, Master of Puppets was something of a revelation for Metallica. The seeds planted in Kill’ Em All and Ride the Lightning had flourished into verdant bloom, with a balanced mixture of energetic headbangers like the title track and brooding, contemplative highlights like ‘The Unforgiven II’. “We had no idea it would have such a range of influence that it went on to have,” Hammett reflected. “It was the first time that we could spend time in the studio and work on guitar sounds for a couple of days, really experiment with different sounds and overdubs.”
“It was just a good time for me, and I played a lot of poker with Cliff Burton in the studio,” Hammett added. The album launch coincided with the band’s most important touring schedule to date as an opening act for Ozzy Osbourne. These shows undoubtedly rivalled the giddying effect of Hammett and Burton’s poker sessions. “I took Metallica on tour with me after the release of Master of Puppets,” Osbourne once said, picking the album out as one of his top ten favourite metal albums. “The album was a milestone for the band and for heavy metal.”
