In an interview on the latest episode of the Gibson TV Icons , Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett took fans on a journey through the last 37 years of his career as a member of one of the greatest bands of all time.
Hammett also discussed the importance, memories, and his impressions of the band's defining 1991 self-titled album, popularly known as The Black Album . “[The album producer Bob Rock ] came to the rehearsals for The Black Album and said to us, 'Nobody has ever captured your power and energy on tape or vinyl.' And I thought about it, and I concluded, 'He has a point. There's yet to be recorded music that captures the energy and urgency of seeing us live.'” And that was his goal. And, to a certain extent, looking back at the records he made, he drew a lot of energy from the studio. His whole way of recording us was so radically different from anything we had done before. All of us playing together in the same room to record the drums was the pinnacle for me, because in the past, it was just James [Hetfield] . And we honestly thought that when we were all playing together like that in one room, Lars [Ulrich] always played better. And using that recording technique proved that to be the case.”
“The first time I heard [the album] on the radio, I was impressed by how good it sounded. Because 'One' sounded really good on the radio, it sounded really good on MTV, and even compressed as hell, but it had something about The Black Album and all the tracks that stood out on the radio. Maybe because there's so much drum presence, the drums are so crisp. I don't know. But every song that played just stood out on the radio; it has so much presence. For me, that's the point I keep coming back to, how good it sounded when I heard the album on the radio,” he states, and also reveals that he never thought of “Enter Sandman” as a great classic, and in fact, none of the album's tracks, which caused a great shock in its sales success and importance to music.
The shock was so great that it resulted in Kirk losing a bet to the tour manager , who claimed the album would sell up to 6 million copies by a certain date, which the artist disbelieved and stated he would give him his car, a Porsche 911 Carrera, if that happened… we believe Kirk walked a lot after that.
Check out the full interview below:
