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An elite heavy metal guitarist whose fleet, ferocious, and fluid playing style helped define the Bay Area thrash sound,
Kirk Hammett co-founded speed/thrash luminaries
Exodus before becoming the lead guitarist for
Metallica. Making his debut on 1983's
Kill 'Em All,
Hammett has appeared on every one of the group's albums and has written some of their most iconic riffs, including 1991's platinum-certified "Enter Sandman." In 2022,
Hammett issued his debut solo effort,
Portals, a wide-ranging set of cinematic instrumentals that paired virtuosic shredding with eerie orchestral soundscapes.
Born in San Francisco and raised in El Sobrante,
Kirk Hammett's early passion for horror movies eventually led him to heavy metal. By 16, he was at the forefront of the fledgling Bay Area thrash scene with his band
Exodus and appeared on the group's 1982 demo. The following year,
Hammett received a phone call from
Metallica (singer/guitarist
James Hetfield, drummer
Lars Ulrich, and bassist
Cliff Burton), who were on the cusp of firing their original guitarist,
Dave Mustaine, asking if he'd be interested in trying out for the band. The group arranged for
Hammett to fly out to their new home base of New York, where he passed the test after a single run-through of their early classic anthem "Seek & Destroy," with
Burton comparing
Hammett's playing to such Euro-metal guitarists as
Michael Schenker and
Ritchie Blackmore -- two of the band's favorite six-stringers. The new lineup quickly began work on their debut album,
Kill 'Em All, issued the same year. Since
Hammett had joined just a short while earlier, he didn't have a chance to put his stamp on the material, opting instead to stick to the riffs and approach that
Mustaine had already laid down. This would change on
Metallica's subsequent two releases, 1984's
Ride the Lightning and 1986's
Master of Puppets, as
Hammett developed his style on what many consider among metal's all-time great albums.
Metallica was fast becoming one of the genre's premier bands, but
Burton's tragic death mid-tour in September of 1986 almost ended the group. With former
Flotsam & Jetsam bassist
Jason Newsted taking
Burton's place,
Metallica soldiered on, issuing two mega-hit albums, 1988's And Justice for All and 1991's platinum-selling self-titled release, and establishing themselves as one of hard rock's biggest acts. Further sold-out tours and hit releases continued throughout the '90s -- 1996's
Load, 1997's
Reload, and 1999's S&M -- as the group reinvented their former image from long-haired metallers to snappily dressed, short-haired rockers. Throughout the 2000s and onward,
Hammett's guitar playing shifted focus from his early metal roots to a more earthy (almost bluesy)
Jimi Hendrix style, as his own "signature series" line of six-strings were manufactured through the ESP guitar company.
In 2022,
Hammett parlayed his lifetime affinity for horror movies into a sinister and cinematic debut solo outing. The all-instrumental
Portals included contributions from drummers
Jon Theodore and
Abraham Laboriel, bassist
Greg Fidelman,
Metallica producer
Bob Rock, award-winning arranger
Blake Neely, and conductor/keyboardist
Edwin Outwater. ~ Greg Prato & James Christopher Monger