Metallica’s Kirk Hammett: New Horror-themed Instrumentals “Feel Like The Best F*cking Things I’ve Ever Done”

After working with Lars Ulrich for the past sixty years, Metallica guitarist/possessor of the world’s best weed, Kirk Hammett, has learned a thing or two about a thing or two… like how to maybe, possibly, potentially raise fan expectations to an unreasonable level while promoting an upcoming piece of work (see: that time Lars said Lulu “makes …And Justice for All sound like the first Ramones album”).

To that end, in a new interview with the Metallica fan club’s So What!, Hammett discusses some horror-themed instrumental tracks he’s creating with Edwin Outwater, who conducted the band’s S&M² performances last year (he’s also the music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada). And during that discussion, Blabbermouth says that Hammett said this:

“‘I recorded those tracks with Edwin, a small chamber orchestra and some other musicians.’ Adding that the songs ‘feel like the best fucking things I’ve ever done,’ he said: ‘One of them is called ‘High Plains Drifter’ and the other one’s called ‘The Incantation.’ They’re not done yet. [They are] still in the rough mix stages. I mean, I have to get the rough mixes, but I have four tracks now. And the four tracks are like four different movies, man. They’re not movie soundtracks; they’re like movies. They tell a story.’”

I mean, I think it’s GREAT that Kirk feels like this is his best work to date. As an artist, it must be incredible to steel feel like you have heights to ascend forty years into your career. Good for him.

BUT…

Holy crap, is it possible he doesn’t realize how high the bar is for these pieces now? This would be like if thirty years after his legendary “called shot,” Babe Ruth had said “I’m gonna do that again, only this time, I’m gonna hit the ball out of the planet’s atmosphere.” (Fun fact: Babe Ruth was dead thirty years after his called shot. But you get my meaning.) Unless it changes music forever, it will probably not be the best thing Kirk Hammett has ever done.

But I could be wrong! I’d certainly love to hear this stuff, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, I don’t know when that will happen — apparently the tracks were meant to be debuted with the Vancouver Symphony this month, but that’s obviously not happening. So. Uh. Just stay tuned, I guess.

Metallica recently announced an acoustic benefit concert for their All Within My Hands charitable foundation. That will stream live from Metallica HQ on Saturday, November 14 at 5pm EST / 2pm PST. Get additional details here.

The band has also apparently been spending their quarantine-induced downtime working on new material, although, again, who the heck knows when that will come out.