| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING Maiden & The Monster The Jinn High Plains Drifter The Incantation PERSONNEL: Kirk Hammett - Guitars Edwin Outwater - Keyboards Greg Fidelman - Bass Jon Theodore - Drums Abraham Laboriel - Drums LA Philharmonic Orchestra Release Date: April 23, 2022 / Label: Blackened Recordings Website: www.facebook.com/kirkHammett |  |
For the longest time, the words "Metallica" and "side project" were never thought of as going hand-in-hand. However, people evolve as they get older and wiser, and our perspectives change on certain subjects as we grow, and that seems like something that metalheads tend to overlook (a lot of times on purpose as a way to console their own insecurities, resulting in their elitist attitudes). With Metallica being at the status that they are at as the Beatles of metal, many people love to have the nagging wife attitude where they have to find one little thing wrong with what they say or do.
Let's rewind the clock back to 2000-2001 for a bit. As it has been well documented in Some Kind Of Monster, Metallica hit a pretty big road bump in their career around this time with James Hetfield going off to rehab after his behaviour from alcohol addiction almost cost him not only his friends, but his family as well. At that time as well, Jason Newsted wanted to work on his Echobrain side project, which James saw as a betrayal, resulting in Newsted walking away from the band. After all the pieces were put back together, and the band were in a happy and healthy place again, their perspective on side projects started shifting, as they started taking on side projects and other creative adventures as a band in between making new music. It then gradually shifted into individual efforts, with one example being Robert Trujillo working on the documentary about the great Jaco Pistorius, but no one in the band ever released a solo musical output until now.
Here we are in 2022, 2 decades since that rough period in their career, and Kirk Hammett is the first one in Metallica to release a musical solo project, and the result is the 4-song EP titled Portals. Now, the first thing people will most definitely expect is for the EP to be Kirk going nuts on the wah-pedal like he normally does. While he does use the wah-pedal on the EP, this is something completely different. Being inspired by sources such as films, film scores, the tracks feature a much more cinematic vibe, but there are moments where he turns the distortion on and unleashes some nasty riffing. The songs cause the listener to use their imagination and create their own mental visuals to the music. Adding to the music is the L.A Philharmonic Orchestra, givng the songs the symphonic touch that is very much needed to give them that movie score vibe.
Metallica are obviously no strangers to symphonic elements (ahem, S&M?), but you would never really hear those elements on an actual studio album, so I'm really happy for Kirk that he got to get his musical side that otherwise wouldn't really fit in Metallica out there, and I'm sure there will be more to come.
Let's rewind the clock back to 2000-2001 for a bit. As it has been well documented in Some Kind Of Monster, Metallica hit a pretty big road bump in their career around this time with James Hetfield going off to rehab after his behaviour from alcohol addiction almost cost him not only his friends, but his family as well. At that time as well, Jason Newsted wanted to work on his Echobrain side project, which James saw as a betrayal, resulting in Newsted walking away from the band. After all the pieces were put back together, and the band were in a happy and healthy place again, their perspective on side projects started shifting, as they started taking on side projects and other creative adventures as a band in between making new music. It then gradually shifted into individual efforts, with one example being Robert Trujillo working on the documentary about the great Jaco Pistorius, but no one in the band ever released a solo musical output until now.
Here we are in 2022, 2 decades since that rough period in their career, and Kirk Hammett is the first one in Metallica to release a musical solo project, and the result is the 4-song EP titled Portals. Now, the first thing people will most definitely expect is for the EP to be Kirk going nuts on the wah-pedal like he normally does. While he does use the wah-pedal on the EP, this is something completely different. Being inspired by sources such as films, film scores, the tracks feature a much more cinematic vibe, but there are moments where he turns the distortion on and unleashes some nasty riffing. The songs cause the listener to use their imagination and create their own mental visuals to the music. Adding to the music is the L.A Philharmonic Orchestra, givng the songs the symphonic touch that is very much needed to give them that movie score vibe.
Metallica are obviously no strangers to symphonic elements (ahem, S&M?), but you would never really hear those elements on an actual studio album, so I'm really happy for Kirk that he got to get his musical side that otherwise wouldn't really fit in Metallica out there, and I'm sure there will be more to come.
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