Metallica still as mad as ever
Heavy metal band comes out swinging with first album in eight years
BACK with its first album in eight years, Metallica has returned to its thrash metal roots, making it clear the band hasn’t lost its anger.
Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct, which comes out today, is the 10th album by a group determined to preserve its reign as one of the defining acts in heavy metal.
“We’re four angry guys,” said lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, now 53.
“These songs have been written with a lot of anger, a lot of aggression, with a real sort of vision to do that,” the California native said during a visit to Paris.
The first track, Hardwired, sets the tone for the 12-track album – uncompromising and ultra-fast with enraged, nihilistic lyrics that recall Metallica’s first opus, 1983’s Kill ‘Em All.
The title of the latest album is “a statement on the human condition and how we all kind of do things that we know are bad for us but we do it anyway”, Hammett said.
“We are hardwired to be a little naughty, a little bad, and on the extreme end of that, some people just self-destruct because they just can’t get enough of that bad stuff.”
The second song, Atlas Rise!, recalls Master of Puppets, the title track of Metallica’s 1986 album that was groundbreaking for the musical depth of a heavy metal song.
Hammett, who first turned to music to release his anger, plays guitar so ferociously that he breaks more strings than he replaces.
“We always want to be the best,” Hammett said, describing his attention to his music as obsessive compulsive. “We just want to go out and conquer.”
After its quiet spell, the band is planning a world tour starting on Jan 11 in Seoul. — AFP