Kirk Hammett says his horror instrumentals are “the best fucking things” he’s ever done

Kirk Hammet has spoken about his new project with S&M2 music director Edwin Outwater – a set of horror-themed instrumentals that are meant to tell a story. The pieces were supposed to be performed with the Vancouver Symphony next month.

Speaking to fan-club magazine So What!, Hammet spoke of his enthusiasm for the pieces, saying that they “feel like the best fucking things I’ve ever done. One of them is called High Plains Drifter and the other one’s called The Incantation. They’re not done yet – 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.”

Outwater’s recent collaboration with Metallica, S&M2, made history as thanks to its success, the band became the first act to have number-one Mainstream Rock songs across four separate decades. The album/concert film marks twenty years since the band first combined thrash and orchestral instrumentation.

Hammett has often expressed interest in musical explorations outside of Metallica’s straight-ahead thrash. Speaking to St Vincent last year, he said: “I can play a lot of different stuff. I’ll play some jazz, bossa nova, blues, gypsy jazz, fucking Eastern European ballads. I play all that stuff. But no one knows I can play this stuff”.