In a recent interview with 93.3 WMMR’s Sara, Kirk Hammett talked about Metallica’s first albums, ‘Kill ‘Em All’ and ‘Ride The Lightning,’ marking their 40th anniversaries in 2023 and 2024. When the interviewer asked him about his view on these records, he answered:
“Well, 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. 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.”
Detailing the metal scene at the time, the guitarist went on:
“No one else was — well, very few other bands were chasing that same vision. You know, it was us, it was Slayer, it was Anthrax, it was Megadeth, it was Exodus, it was Overkill, it was Testament. There’s a lot of bands who were chasing that vision, and we all had kind of like the same vision. But what blows me away about it is we’re all around the same age.”
He shared what triggered the beginning of their careers:
“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. And we were all, like, 22, 23 years old.”
Hammett also mentioned what set Metallica’s first two records apart from the rest by saying:
“The fact that we got so much done at such a young age just blows me away because it seems like we had something on our sides — we had some sort of energy, or God was smiling down on us, or the universe was pushing us. 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…”
The Metallica guitarist went on to compare his old and new views on them:
“I’m actually blown away when I look back at it. When we were making those albums and touring behind them, we just kind of took it for granted. It was just, like, ‘All right, we did that. Let’s go on to the next thing.’ We never like sat down and really thought about the accomplishment that we made. And so, 40 years later, I’m able to do that, and I’m able to go, ‘Man, we really pulled something off, and we were just kind of blasé about it,’ you know?”
The band released ‘Kill ‘Em All’ in 1983 and ‘Ride The Lightning’ a year later through Megaforce Records. The second album included Metallica’s first ballad and received mixed reactions from the audience for its sound.
So, while talking about it in a 2014 chat with Rolling Stone, Lars Ulrich shared:
“It did surprise us a little bit, I guess. People started calling us sellouts and all that type of stuff. Some people were a little bit bewildered by the fact that there was a song that had acoustic guitars.”
Currently, Metallica is on a world tour to promote its 11th studio album, ‘72 Seasons.’ In addition to the upcoming shows that will last until Fall 2024, the band will hold different events for some of the dates, as announced in June.
