{ Lick That Riff! }

Hello everyone and welcome to another Hero Worship post where I look at an amazing Guitar Hero. This week see’s the turn of one of the legendary Metallica guitarists. This guy definitely deserves to be mentioned in this Hero Worship series. He played through the 80s, 90s and 00′s and continues to rock today. He has helped Metallica sell over 100 Million albums worldwide and in 2003 Rolling Stone placed him as 11th Best Guitarist Of All Time. He was also, along with the rest of Metallica, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame last year. He has contributed in lots of the writing for Metallica, a lot on their 90s album Load. His crowning moments though have came in many riffs, licks and sizes. No more so than Metallica’s most commercially successful song, Enter Sandman. So who is this magical guitar wizard? Well of course it’s none other than Kirk Hammett. A true god.

What Total Guitar said about him:

You Know Him By His: Melodic approach to heavy metal lead guitar; bluesy bends, double stops, unison bends, intense wah-drenched solos and Satriani-inspired modal licks

Greatest Moment: One, where Hammett and the whole band are on fire.

It wasn’t a bad start for an aspiring guitar god. Metallica gunslinger Kirk Hammett took his first lessons with then local guitar hero Joe Satriani. He had to cycle 15 miles through the streets of San Francisco, but what Satch taught Kirk about shredding the shit out of a super Strat no doubt took the sting out of the saddle sores and chafed thighs. Those initial lessons armed Kirk with a head full of theory and a considerable technique based on the modes Satriani was obsessed with. Satch’s influence on Hammett’s playing on the early Metallica albums is obvious: the shred guitar phenomenon was at its height and Kirk was keen to show off his hot modal licks, riding roughshod atop James Hetfield’s angry thrash rhythms.

He had plenty of opportunites to show off too – this was the 1980′s, when a song without a guitar solo would have been like an edition of Total Guitar without a CD. In this respect Metallica were no scrooges and loaded their album with song after song of kickass, inspirational leads, most courtesy of Hammett: Fade To Black, The Unforgiven, Enter Sandman… and a gazillion more the same.

Since the 1990′s Hammett’s style has had an overhaul, as he opened his ears to new influences. You’re less likely to hear him blaze the ‘board off his signature ESP guitars these days – last album St.Anger was surprisingly light on solos – and when he does let it rip you’ll hear a bluesy influence that would have stood out like a suntanned Goth on early Metallica records. You have to watch Hammett play live to really understand what we’re talking about. This dude knows what it means to be a guitar hero: it’s all thrust back, headstock aloft and spanking that plank like a petulant child.

Well that’s it for another Hero Worship. I hope you have enjoyed the look at one of Metals best guitarist exports. May he carry on producing those amazing Guitar riffs, licks and shreds.

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