Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett says that the band’s next album could be a return to the style of their late ’90s albums Load and Reload - a style that drummer Lars Ulrich liked to describe as “greasy”.
Speaking in the latest episode of the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Hammett responded positively to the idea of Metallica making another record in that vein.
"Who knows?” Hammett said. “We might just say, 'Okay, let's go back to the '90s again.' It's not a bad idea.”
But he added for clarity: “We haven't said that to each other yet.”
Hammett says that the Load and Reload albums have been reassessed in recent years.
“t's interesting, because when Load and Reload came out, there was a lot of derision, there was a lot of backlash.
“It was too much change. We changed our appearance, we changed our sound, we changed the way we recorded.
“I was even playing different guitars and fucking tuning to E flat and listening to a lot of blues and jazz.
“And so all those factors came out on Load and Reload… and [those two albums] are so different from anything that came before it.
“It's interesting, 'cause nowadays I run into fans and they love that era — they love Load and Reload. But when those albums first came out, it was, like, ‘Fuck Load!’ Fuck Reload!’ Fuck Metallica!’ But nowadays we play [Reload song] Fuel and people go nuts.”
In the same interview, Hammett also claims that he has an enormous stockpile of new riffs for the next Metallica album.
"Oh, it's ridiculous, bro,” he says. “Because, okay, let me see how many riffs I have at this point. Okay. Oh, man. All recordings — 767. New ones. New ones, bro!
“Oh God. It is such a nightmare going through this stuff, too. I can't do it. And I'm the one responsible for all of it, and I can't do it.”
He says that the band’s bassist Robert Trujillo helps him sort through the material.
“Rob Trujillo is an extremely patient individual, and he doesn't mind taking on a task like that, and I just shake my head and say, 'God bless you, man! You're my bro. There's a reason why you're so much my bro,' because it's just a lot of material to go through."
Hammett says of his songwriting process: "I've found over the years that the stuff I don't think about is usually the best stuff, because it just comes to me, and if it just comes to me in a natural way, there's kind of like an organic sort of feel to it.
“And so that's how I come up with everything these days. I just sit there with my guitar and see what happens.
“I refuse to work hard on anything. I mean by 'working hard', just like analysing it and trying to see, 'Oh, if I change this note' and 'this has to work with this' — it feels like I'm doing algebra after a while.
"I don't want it. I failed algebra two years in a row. I'm not gonna fucking wanna do algebra when it comes to music. I wanna sit there and see what the universe and the muse sends me.
“And, bro, in the last 10 years I've gotten great results. And all I really have to do, and I do this practically every day, I go, okay, I sit here, clear my mind and start just moving my fingers, moving my hands, and inevitably something comes. And it's a beautiful thing.
“And I feel so blessed and lucky that this is happening, 'cause I'm 62 fucking years old, and a lot of artists, when they're 62 years old, they're winding things down.
“I feel like I'm still fucking climbing the summit, bro. I haven't reached the top of the mountain yet. I still feel like I'm improving and I still have a lot of fricking creative momentum and energy in me, to the point where it's just, like, I'm creating more work for myself.”
Hammett also reveals that he is making more solo music to follow on from his 2022 E.P. Portals.
"Right now I'm just actively getting ideas together,” he says. “And I guess the best way for me to describe it is it's gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles, but not necessarily a fusion album. It's not jazz fusion…
“All of a sudden I'm writing fucking classical progressions and all of a sudden I'm fucking writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I'm writing like a funk thing. I'm like going, 'Okay, I guess this is what it is. This is what it is.' It's a fusion of different styles.
“And it's gonna be a full-length album. There will be vocals, because the songs that I wrote just scream for vocals this time around. So I'm, like, 'Okay.' Who's gonna be doing the vocals? I don't know. I hope I'm not, 'cause I already have too much to do on stage.”
He continues: “It's interesting because I started to read Ancient Greek. And I've been obsessed with a lot of ancient Greek texts.
“Pythagoras, he's the father of fucking musical theory!
“And so there's so much reference to music in the ancient text in regards to rite, ritual and magic, and it's so interesting to me because I see parallels. The Greeks used to use music to augment the rituals, their secret rites. And music was so highly regarded back then.
“And I'm reading all this and I'm shaking my head going, 'Yes, I can see how they would use all this.' 'Cause I firmly believe that if there's any true, real true example of what magic is in this world, it's music, bro.
“Music is magic. Magic is music.
"Music is magic, because all you need to do is sit in front of someone and play an instrument and they're moved by it.
“You have the ability to change the situation in the room by playing music. When people hear certain types of music, they're transformed.
“If you don't think that's magic, what is it? Science. Come on, give me a break. It's more than that. And so I spend a lot of time thinking about stuff like this. Sorry to say!”
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