Ron Thal recently attended Kevin Re LoVullo’s YouTube channel for an interview and talked about Metallica’s influence on metal. He praised Kirk Hammett and decided to play ‘Master of Puppets – Interlude’ to show Kirk’s influence. However, it seems like he overlooked that the interlude belonged to James Hetfield and not Kirk Hammett.
Metallica is one of the most prominent bands and has always created music that influences other musicians. Although with 1991’s ‘Black Album’ they switched to a heavier and more refined sound, the band is known as one of the big four thrash bands that helped shape the genre along with Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer.
Ron Thal recently talked about this effect of the band on other musicians. He described it as opening the flood gates because the sound was not reserved. It was free-flowing, wild, and a huge amount of energy was waiting to get out. He further talked about the band’s long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and shared his thoughts on his guitar playing.
He praised Kirk for coming up with impressive solos that people want to ‘learn how to play.’ He gave an example by briefly playing ‘Master of Puppets – Interlude,’ although Kirk Hammett actually wasn’t responsible for that part of the song. The main solo part belongs to Kirk in the song, but not in the ‘Interlude;’ hence Thal mixed James’ part for Kirk’s.
Here is what he stated about Metallica and Kirk Hammett:
“There was such around that they had, all the guitar players and of course Kirk. It was like flood gates just opened up, and they just come flying out like there was nothing reserved. It’s almost like you could barely contain the energy in the playing. The way they would play. Kirk definitely had that. But besides that, coming up with classic solos that everybody wants to learn.”
He played the ‘Master of Puppets – Interlude’ and then continued:
“You know when you make a solo that, for decades, people want to know how to play that, then you’ve done something legendary, and he’s done that over and over.”
You can watch the interview below.
