Metallica have officially been making albums for over four decades, as they just celebrated the 40th anniversary of their debut Kill ‘Em All at the end of July. During a new interview with Philadelphia’s WMMR, Kirk Hammett reflected on their career and explained why he thinks their first two albums were so special.
“When I listen to those tracks, I’m just kind of blown away when I look back. We were all so young, but we had a very clear vision of what we wanted to do, what we wanted to sound like, how we wanted to execute things, the type of songs we wanted to write,” the guitarist recalled. “I mean, for as young as we [were], we all had a collective vision and we knew exactly what we wanted, and what we wanted and what we were chasing was very unique.”
Hammett pointed out that Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Exodus, Overkill and Testament were among some of the other young groups that shared the same vision as Metallica at the time, but it was something that was so distinct from what was popular. He further added that the fact that they were all around the same age made the scene that much more special.
“I don’t know if that happens these days. You find just a large group of people, a scene where everyone’s just all into the same thing and is supporting each other. And then record companies start going, ‘What’s going on?’ and start getting curious, and next thing you know, all of a sudden there’s a record company in the room and it is signing everyone,” he continued, adding that it was as if the “universe was pushing” all of the groups toward success.
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“And thank God, because those two albums, Kill ‘Em All and Ride the Lightning, when they came out, there was nothing like it. And I’m really proud of that.”
Check out the full interview at this location. Metallica’s North American leg of their M72 World Tour continues this weekend in Montreal, Canada.
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