Kirk Hammet-underrated guitarist?

nyarlothothep

I think he gets a lot of unfair slagging off. Sure he makes mistakes here and there live and repeats some of the same licks but what guitarist doesnt? (except for the androids and crab people). I think he has written some very memorable solos for songs such as jump in the fire, one, master of puppets, disposable heroes (cracking solo in that song) and enter sandman, just being a few. And even though his solos are not as technically difficult as some metal/shred guitar solos, its pretty obvious that he is technically accomplished.

Karl Hungus

I think he's held in plenty high reguard.

A Primal Nut

I think he fits Metallica perfectly. Sure, his solos can be quite interchangeable from one song to the next but you don't have to be totally unique to be brilliant. Definately one of my favourite shredders, coz his solos retain structure no matter how fast he plays. He always knows just what to play. I agree Disposable Heroes solo is one of his best solos but my favourite Hammett solo is actually not a shred solo, but the blues rock solo in the Unforgiven. Absolutely amazing. He's written some cool riffs over the years too (most notably Enter Sandman) and has songwriting credit on most of their biggest songs, so he's more than just a lead guitarist. He and James Hetfield are the most tabbed guitarists ever - not that it means anything in terms of ability but its a nice achievement nonetheless.

I agree with Karl though - he's not underrated. I've seen him get into top 10 guitarist lists a few times, most notably in Total Guitar (or near top 10 anyway can't remember exactly).

Dave H

A Primal Nut wrote:

I think he fits Metallica perfectly.

That pretty much sums it up there, he does'nt need to play like guitarists who are more technically efficient than him to sound good in Metallica, what he does is spot on for what they do.

hyn-zie

Not a big fan, his earlier stuff was brilliant, bought the Justice for all album and i'm finding it hard to put it back in my cd player!!

Malice

He's definitely not underrated. He might get slagged off but you'll never hear someone say "The outro from Fade to Black? Simple, I learned it last night and I can play it twice as fast as he can". Well, you might but they'll be lying!

Schism

hyn-zie wrote:

Not a big fan, his earlier stuff was brilliant, bought the Justice for all album and i'm finding it hard to put it back in my cd player!!

Give it another go, it really is a cracking album.

klaus flouride

Kirk Hammet is a decent guitarist - formidable probably best describes him. Dave Mustaine was and is better, but as a replacement you won't find better than kirk - most pf his solos are blues based, i think thats why alot of shred-heads give him a hard time; unfair really because it is a unique style in the world of metal.
Justice... is a great album, it could have been Metallica's finest hour were it not for the awful production job done on it (Primarily its complete lack of Bass) - This is something which all 3 long term members of Met. agree upon. But you should give it a go.

nyarlothothep

Yeah, Justice tends to rattle the skull in a bad way, all the low and high frequencies are boosted so theres no middle ground, it sounds churning as a result. Its very shrill. Some great songs on it.

rockintothebone

well im not sure if the solos are his own but i heard his first solo in a song was to wherever i roam...the rest of the solos are written by james and lars...and played by kirk...he is a guy who is told to do..someone who needs a push.....cant say hes underrated...feel hes way overated

Beekay

rockintothebone wrote:

well im not sure if the solos are his own but i heard his first solo in a song was to wherever i roam...the rest of the solos are written by james and lars...and played by kirk...he is a guy who is told to do..someone who needs a push.....cant say hes underrated...feel hes way overated

My understanding was that James and Lars would typically write the main structure of the song and then Kirk would write the solos. How could Lars write a guitar solo?

FrankFluffy

Kirk Hammet is one of the few great guitarist left. He is technically brilliant and if you want to know how good he is listen to any album before the black album. After that Metallica lost their direction thanks to that fool Bob Rock who started producing their albums. I have a cover album of Metallica songs and their is not even one guitarist on the album who can keep up with his speed. He has huge respect in the music industry but not as much since Load(of ****e) and re-load etc

demanufactured

I have to say i wouldnt be a fan of kirts , and im a fan of metallica past and present, his style just seems so novice sometimes , eg, dodgy vibrato and repeated pentatonic licks.

He does have some fine solos though , the intro to fade to black comes to mind.

gucci

demanufactured wrote:

He does have some fine solos though , the intro to fade to black comes to mind.

for this reason alone i will count myself as a fan, it was the first song i could properly play on guitar, and probably still the only thing i could play properly if you were to offer me a guitar right now years later
technically or sound-wise he may not be perfect, but he has speed and huge ability and a sound, which adds to the metallica sound that i loved back in the day and still do when i listen to Master of Puppets etc. pity he dresses so dodgily at times

senordingdong

I like the stuff that I think he plays, but I've read that Hetfield is the driving force behind Metallica's riffs.


Lars Ulrich though....I think he is under-rated.

That_Guy

For the type of music and the type of songs that Metallica write I think he's a good guitarist and is good at what he does but I personally don't think that he's one of the greatest guitarists on the metal scene.

That_Guy

senordingdong wrote:

Lars Ulrich though....I think he is under-rated.

No way!! I think he's one of the most over-rated drummers out there. He's been playing with Metallica for god knows how long and I really don't see any significant improvement in his technique.

Schism

There certainly are much better drummers out there than Lars. I think people main problem with his is he comes across as an asshole.

nyarlothothep

He not the best drummer but he hardly crap either, his playing works with the music which is the most important thing. Now ringo starr was crap but thats another matter...

SirLemonhead

He's incredibly OVER rated. His playing seemed to stagnate around Justice and rather than slowly get better and improve as a player all around, he seems to be regressing. Anything live i've heard from him lately has been sloppy and messy sounding.

quoteunquote

sure the arthritis must be kicking in by now...

Jack Vegas

Kirk Hammett isn't technically amazing, but in his prime he was decent enough technique wise, I'd agree with the opinion that he was a good guitarist in that he suited the band he was in perfectly.

nonamemark

Kirk is over rated as is Lars, he uses the wah way too much in his solos and over use of the wah pedal tends to drown out the notes being played

Dwilly

by contrast I think some of the wah use on AJFA is really creative and adds magic to the licks. but yeah, a lot of repetition in general.

Mental Mickey

James Hetfield is the better of the two guitarists, IMO. Metallica's sound is all about rhythm guitars.

The riffs on Enter Sandman n Sad But True are brilliant.

A Primal Nut

Mental Mickey wrote:

James Hetfield is the better of the two guitarists, IMO. Metallica's sound is all about rhythm guitars.

The riffs on Enter Sandman n Sad But True are brilliant.

Kirk wrote the Enter Sandman riff, not James. Still, I agree James is the better guitarist.

I love the wah effect, I guess its a matter of taste.

nonamemark

Ah yea, who doesn't like a bit of wah wah thrown in now and then? I'm on about when it's over used and ruins the riff/solo

NeMiSiS

He is very good at writing stuff that seems to fit perfectly.
Unforgiven solo would be one of my all time fav solos.
Steve Vai gave him lessons... would he have been let out of class if he was crap ?
TK

Doctor J

It was Satriani, not Vai


As for Kirk, his solos from RTL to AJFA are superb, well thought out and structured, well played, really good and an integral part of the tunes IMO. From the black album on... well, I remember reading Guitar World when that album came out where he had made the conscious decision that "blues" solos were more emotional and he wasn't going to be playing sweeps or interesting scales or technical stuff anymore and, as a result, his playing has been pretty boring since then. He's not playing what's right for the tune anymore, like he used to, he just shoehorns the same poxy and boring blues wah solo into every **** song... apart from the ones he wasn't allowed solo on

It'll be interesting to see, now that Metallica Inc. have decided that it's ok to play Metal again, if Kirk is allowed to return to his old approach to solos and do interesting things outside the pentatonic minor scale (Thing That Should Not Be for example) or if he'll just play the same emotional solo he's been peddling since the early 90s.

I'd say the same for Lars, his playing up to 1990 continually improved, was innovative, suited the tunes, no complaints. After that... well, as Newsted pointed out, he stopped practicing and couldn't play the old stuff anymore (listen to Damage Inc off that live EP they put out after stanger, where he hasn't the skill to play bass drums during the verses, embarassingly) so we'll see if their new no-longer-ashamed-to-be-a-Metal-band policy signals some sort of return to form for him too.

BostonB

Metallica are great. But Kirk wouldn't be one of my all time favorite guitarists. Hes good but most of his best stuff was in the past. Maybe hes something amazing left to pull out of the bag yet. I'm not a fan of that EMG over processed toneless sound of his either.

nonamemark

Doctor J wrote:

It'll be interesting to see, now that Metallica Inc. have decided that it's ok to play Metal again

Sure don't you remember before St. Anger was released? On the front of every metal magazine:

ST. ANGER - BACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL!

Although those two new songs floating about YouTube have some good riffs in them but besides that they're crap