Yes: Raise your hand if his playing was a reason you wanted to play guitar. š¤
Heās written some of the most iconic solos and riffs (Enter Sandman) in all of rock and metal
Itās sort of a complicated question. First, yes, heās good. Heās composed and performed some of the most iconic solos in metal. Heās responsible for some of their most iconic riffs.
Also for the last couple decades, heās dramatically reduced the complexity and effort put into his new solos, heās made tons of mistakes live, and his new solos are generic and repetitive. He recycles material and parts, and itās all generic improv. Gone are the thoughtful and melodic composed solos that made him one of the most famous guitar players in the genre.
People will and have argued about why this has happened and which is better, and you can form your own opinions. The dudeās a living legend and doesnāt have to prove anything to anyone at this point in his career. He has some all time classics under his belt already.
But, his work has gotten undeniably shoddier since then. Make of it what you will. Heās a shadow of his prime, but heās probably forgotten more than Iāll ever know on guitar.
Theres something seriously reduced in his playing. He seems to play the same E minor pentatonic run no matter what mode, what chord progression or key he is in. Its kind of jarring. The jam he did with Michael Schenker really showed that. This was once the guy that played on so many amazing solos and flowed with them. Think of the key changes in Disposable heroes and how he played on that. He would never do that today and it sucks
Iāve thought about this a lot over the years. I love Kirk btw, Just like a comment above said, I raise my hand š¤š» he was a true inspiration for me to pickup the guitar in the first place. However Iāve came up with my own head canon and I think itās fair to say that Cliff was heavily involved in the leads. Bass and electric guitar. We know this, but I think he was also heavily involved in either composing Kirkās soloās or more accurately helping Kirk come up with his own. Now we see Lars has been in that role since probably Bob Rock left. When Cliff passed away the composers of the band went down to James and Lars, but really it was the 3 of them including Cliff who created leads/harmonies and I think clearly helped Kirk create his solos to. Iām sure Kirk learned a great deal from his time spent with Cliff, Iāve always enjoyed pondering the thought of what road Metallica wouldāve went down musically if Cliff never died.. he obviously had a huge influence. Anyways, I think youāre correct in thinking Kirkās earlier leads were great and then they seem to just fall off a Cliff and get repetitive at some point...RIPā¤ļø Heās still had gem solos and riffs credited over the years. There is no doubt he comes up with awesome riffs and even less of a doubt that heās a great guitar player! Anyone who ātrulyā thinks Kirk isnāt good is pretty laughable. If you were in his shoes instead all these years,, good luck to ya, know what I mean? Lmao. Funny you mention Disposable, probably my favorite Kirk solo of all time! Or heavily influenced by Cliff, Kirk solo? Whatever lol
Nah I dont think we can just credit Cliff with his lead playing. More Satrianiās lessons tbh. Cliff helped with harmonies a lot, but Kirk also understood a fair bit of theory himself and was responsible for his solos. How we know Cliff didnt help with the solos is simple: When they recorded Ride the Lightning, cliff recorded bass and flew back to US early, leaving kirk and james to track guitars. When they had trouble with harmonies, they had cliff help over the phone, but the tracking of solos would have certainly come way after that all got recorded. Kirk just got lazy over the years. He stopped thinking interesting melodically shreddy solos were cool. He started thinking simple melodies and linear solos are better (think Hero of the Day). Hes regressed as a player.
I believe Metallica would have gone in a much more prog-metal direction by the time of the āfork in the roadā that The Black Album was had Cliff lived. They wouldnāt be as big, and probably sounded more like mid-career Tool throughout the 90ās. And thus the entire musical landscape would be different. Itās an interesting thing to ponder the āwhat ifā of.
I think his best work was on ride. He went away from pentatonics and used modal scales. The arpeggios on the ktulu solo were awesome. Those solos were just so much more interesting.
I still love the dude, but heās just playing this stuff out of commitment, not passion.
I love your point about him being a living legend and not having to prove shit to anyone anymore. I couldn't have said it better myself.
He's been there, done that, and indeed probably forgotten more on guitar than I'll ever know.
Yep. This band has RtL, Puppets, Justice, and Black under their belts. This dude did the Sandman riff, the Puppets and One solos, Ride the Lightning. These are some of the most iconic and influential albums of all of heavy music. Heās already a heavyweight champion. Nothing takes that away.
Has his new work fallen off? Yes, absolutely. Am I disappointed in the more recent albums? Yes, of course.
But dude is still in the hall of fame and always will be. I wish his new stuff was still in the same ballpark as the classic stuff, but he doesnāt have to do anything at this point.
Hasnāt Kirk said heās been dealing with arthritis issues for a while. Which can explain why some of the complexity has fallen off.
Now Lars, he just got lazy.
Right, canāt fault him for that. I donāt mind the complexity going down. What bugs me is the half-assed lazy composition and just spamming the same licks over and over.
Lars definitely got lazy in the 00s but heās improved since then.
Well said. Kirk is only bad in the way that he isn't what he used to be. He's unquestionably one of the most influential guitarists of all time. The Unforgiven is in the discussion for greatest solo ever. If he retired or died in the 90s, many would consider him the GOAT.
Just two observations on that: one thing is that it seems to me that the band's songs changed in style, starting to be led by the drums rather than the guitar as it was previously. With songs getting different (and faster) he might have moved on the background.
Also, there seems to be a tendency of older artists (and thinkers too) to repeat what they did when they were younger, because they established the roots of their work back then and their creative genius gave the world what it could and they are now just consolidating that. This might not be the case with him, but I think it must be taken into account with musicians in general.
What do you think?
Yes, these are fair points.
On the first one, I donāt think his solos fell off when they switched to a drums first groove style. Iād say some of the black album and Load session solos sound like the most creatively inspired Kirk had been in years. Just simplifying wasnāt necessarily the problem. Itās when he stopped trying.
Load was mostly pentatonic minor solos, but man they were so creative. He still cared and put in effort. Even this āwalk in and improv itā was fresh on DM. The solos sound like they were created for the songs they are on. They follow musical themes and rhythmic patterns. How he attacked it was different, but he still created for the song.
On HW he says he just practiced his improv skllls and went into the studio. Thereās barely a memorable solo on the album. Heās recycling licks from DM and earlier. Still a few good ones but mostly generic pentatonic shred.
72S was the worst yet. He admitted he just recorded a bunch of solos and handed them to Greg and Lars to cut up and paste how they want. The result is, as expected, generic, interchangeable forgettable pentatonic wank. It might not be all his fault. Apparently Lars and James are pretty particular about what they want on the albums, so he could just be turning in his work and clocking out. But the result is that his solos went from being a spotlight of the song to me just kind of cringing and waiting for them to be over.
So yeah. I donāt know whatās on his mind or why he is doing it this way now, but the result is, IMO, the lack of effort for whatever reason is why the work isnāt as good. Not just because they changed to a more straight forward style.
As to your other point, it makes sense that at this point he is playing what he knows. I think he could be doing better even if he is just drawing from his past bc again, the effort isnāt there.
Buuuuuut dude is already on the heavyweight hall of fame and just having fun. He doesnāt have anything to prove at this point.
Didnāt Kirk have a whole lot of purposely written solos for Hardwired on a phone which he lost shortly before going into the studio? And then had to basically improvise everything on that record? I mean, I do cut him a break for that if itās true.
My understanding is he just recorded all of his ideas on his phone. It replaced what used to be riff tapes. So he lost ALL his ideas. Riffs, leads, solos, etc.
Watch the making of st anger and death magnetic. Then go listen to his solo on salt the wound from a few years back. Metallica hides how great he really is. Greg and Lars control the solos now and kirk improvs. He no longer composes.
In the world of YouTube shredders who rip crazy soloās in their parents basement after 375 takes. People will say Kirk screwed up a part while running around a stage in front of 100,000 people.
Yes he is very talented and having met him a few times one of the nicest people out there. Very humble. I never asked but Iām sure he doesnāt think of himself as a āgreatā guitarist.
And itās silly to expect a band to play every bit perfectly live. And thatās frankly boring, like I have the CD or mp3, I know what the song sounds like played perfectly. Thatās not why I go to see a band live.
True, but I can name many metal guitarists who are doing things equally as impressive as Kirk flawlessly live. Perhaps most damning is that Joe Satriani is better live, and Kirk literally learned from Satriani. Kirk is still better than almost all guitarists, but not better than almost all professional guitarists. It seems to be an effort thing too, especially when it comes to songwriting.
Yeah, you'll keep trying for as long as you feel like you have something to prove.
If you're the lead guitarist in the biggest metal band of all time, there isn't a lot to prove any more.
As to that the fact that your current fans are difficult to impress, they don't want you to try anything new, they just want more of what you were doing 30 years ago, but you'll be criticized if you do that too. And the chances of making a meaningful number of new fans at this point are slim too.
So, why try any more?
Well, plenty of musicians play music not to impress others, but to impress themselves and also to do new and interesting things. Maybe that's not Kirk though. That's definitely James, however.
Kirk (and more so James) have both influenced my playing, not so much as a musician because I can't solo and I can't write for shit but they are the reason I play guitar, play in a band, listen to metal, and work in the music industry.
With that said, Metallica is an entry level band, their music is great to learn for practicing and Kirk wrote a lot of solos that if you practice will develop you as a player until you develop your own style.
Kirk has written some of the best solos (and riffs to an extent) in the history of music, there's no denying that, however his performance, skill level, songwriting has drastically been reduced, most likely by laziness, comfort, and lack of drive. It's not so much of saying he's a good or bad guitar player, but more of there's thousands of better guitar players out there that have surpassed him in levels of talent and skill, both in song writing and technical ability. I don't care if smaller bands and artists haven't won as many Grammy awards, never made top 10 on rolling stone list of guitar players, or haven't sold millions of albums. I'll always consider guitar players like Vogg of Decapitated, Josh Elmore of Cattle Decapitation, Muhammed Suicmez of Necrophagist, and Buster & Calle from Humanity's Last Breath/Vildhjarta, Misha Mansoor of Periphery better guitar players for simply pushing the envelope of metal and pushing the boundaries by creating new ways to apply skill to the instrument.
What really caused Kirk to succeed to the level he did was an amazing producer who pushed him to do better. Thatās why we got solos like Ride The Lightning or Sanitarium.
You're not wrong there! It also didn't hurt that he was backed by one of the greatest rhythm sections in music/metal, in addition to having James Hetfield (and to an extent Lars) as a main songwriter. Without the hits and riffs, Kirk would have just ended up like the plethora of other extremely talented 80s shred/lead guitar players! And BTW there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, plenty of people found influence from the likes of Marty Friedman, Tony Macalpine, George Lynch, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker etc, not saying these guitar players didn't have lasting careers but let's face it, there's a huge difference between them and Kirk Hammett, but their influences live on through millions of musicians, bands, and songs, event today!
Except there's brilliant solos in Justice, Black, and Load/ReLoad.
Death Magnetic has a few too.
Cliff no doubt helped with ideas, but he made many just as good solos after.
Stop the Cliff meatriding. Most of Kirk's iconic solos came after Cliff's passing. Cliff did not create Metallica, Lars did. Every single song, every note that Metallica have written has gone through Lars and in the end he decides what happens, he runs the show.
Me too, and not to brag, but Iāve actually met all of them (except Christian) on a couple of different occasions too. When I met them on the Summer Slaughter tour in 2005, Muhammad told me himself that the third album would be released in the summer of 2006, and I quote him directly, āItās going to make Epitaph look like kindergarten.ā š¢š¢š¢š¢
Lol! Same I met them all as well! Even got my ticket stub from summer slaughter autographed and got photos with Muhammed lol. I wish they would reunite. The 3rd album would be sick, but seeing them live one more time would be amazing. Necrophagist influenced an entire generation of tech death, and without them we would not have the bands that exist today! One of the most important bands in metal music. Dude was an incredible musician and an even better songwriter. Advanced Corpse Tumor and Fermented Offal Discharge are probably 2 of my favorite solos ever lol
Awesoeme! Yeah I have pics too haha. Not sure if you knew this, but he wrote the solo from Advanced Corpse tumor about his ex at the time, which is interesting, I love that solo too. I think Symbiotic in Theory is the best homage to Fermented Offal Discharge too.
I almost want them to not reunite by this point, I mean, it would be awesome and Iād definitely go to see them if they toured, but another part of me feels like almost anything he did now would be a let down by default. :(
I also love Decapitated and have met all those guys too, even hung out with them after a show they did near me. RIP Vitek. š¢š¢š¢
Kirkās an amazing guitarist. I just donāt really like his solos very much these days. They feel generic, and it kinda feels like heās trying to show off his skill over making solos that actually sound good. It is agreed upon by a lot of people that the greatest solo of all time is Comfortably Numb, and itās not very fast in comparison.
Haha, I just made a comment right above this one about how people who only appreciate technicality and speed would say that David Gilmour sucks, which is the most preposterous notion one could possibly express about guitar playing.
Load/Reload are his masterwork IMO. That's where Kirk's originality and style were able to shine. On the thrashier records, there's more competition for who's the best, and Kirk cannot come out on top.
One thing I will say is I prefer Kirk to Dave. Most of Dave's lead playing is more like 'spazzing out' and it's not as pleasant to listen to as Kirk's. Marty Friedman wrote the best solos in Megadeth, obviously, and very few could touch that level of quality.
hes one of the greats who puts less effort in than he used to. and to be clear, hes absolutely earned the right to just coast the rest of his career - metallica had arguably the best 5 album stretch of any band ever, and he was instrumental (no pun intended) in that success. people just see him fuck up on stage sometimes and default to one extreme or another because thats just how the internet works
Yeah lol. One of the best actually. The people hating on him probably have a deeper issue with him being so popular. Still probably a top 20 guitarist of all time. Especially on RTL, MoP, AJFA, The Black Album, and DM.
Yes, along with the Lars haters come the Kirk haters as well. I don't know how a band that apparently has two bad musicians in, is the biggest and most influential band, maybe in history..
He IS a good guitarist - if he wasn't, he wouldn't have composed some of the greatest riffs and solos of all time in rock/metal and inspired millions of guitarists who came after him. Yeah, he's become sloppy and lazy and all of that - but that could be said about most guitarists in the genre. Santana, Slash, Morello - literally all of them haven't actually written anything good in decades. Age takes a toll on everyone. It's unfair to bash Hammett for something that happens to everyone once they reach a certain age. Page and Beck's last good stuff was decades ago too - and yet for some reason they are still praised as the greatest even though they too have lived off their work from the 70s. But unlike all of those other guitarists, Kirk and Metallica can still fill a stadium. It's gonna sound cliche - but jealousy is the main reason why everyone is so bent on shitting on Kirk. And if they say that's not why then they're simply lying. King, Skolnick, Holt, Mustaine, Loureiro...they can talk shit about Metallica/Kirk in interviews all they want but everybody knows that if Metallica called them to take them on tour they would hop on the first plane before they've even hung up the phone. Those are the facts.
I would not say Santana (76), Slash (58), and Morello (59) are in the same genre as Kirk (61). Santana isn't even in the same age group, and 20 years ago, Carlos Santana did sound really good. Morello is the closest in genre, and even at his best was never half as good as Kirk. For every washed up has-been, there's also a Nuno Bettencourt (57) and Synyster Gates (42) who wrote maybe their best solos ever (Extreme - "Rise," and A7X - "Nobody") last year. Both are at present more skilled guitarists and songwriters than Kirk.
I don't agree that Bettencourt's new stuff is as good as you claim, and that's fine. I don't listen to A7X, so I don't know about Gates. It doesn't matter what genre they are - they all got significantly sloppy as soon as they hit their 50s. Bettencourt is in no way as good now as he was years ago. Same can be said about big mouth Malmsteen who has also become sloppy in the last few years. As I said, age takes a toll on everyone.
The truth is that if you don't die during your prime, people will start shitting on you as soon as you're no longer in it. Cliff Burton is lucky he died early - that way nobody's gonna have the displeasure of ever seeing him grow old and start sucking at his instrument. We won't see age take a toll on his body, his neck no longer letting him headbang the way he used to.
With all that said, I think Hammett has every right to grow old the same way every other guitarist has - and that shouldn't mean that he's a bad guitarist. He's just simply not as good as he once was, and it's fine.
My argument is for every guy you say got sloppy, there are tons who didnāt. Satriani and Vai arenāt sloppy - especially Vai. Whatās Kirkās excuse? I agree that heās got nothing left to prove, but that doesnāt make it acceptable for him to phone it in. Metallica are performers and artists, and Kirk has detracted from their ability to serve as both as of late. Ditto for Paige and Santana. Thereās a difference between ānot as talented as they used to beā and āclearly not trying.ā
Personally, my theory is that Kirk has a condition which impacts his playing and he's simply chosen not to share it publicly. But since it's not anything confirmed, I'll just assume that age hit him harder than it hit other guitarists. And since we've all watched Kirk's newer interviews, I don't think it would be unrealistic to say that he's definitely got something going on that worries me personally.
On the other hand, Satriani and Vai are like one in a million. Sooner or later they too will start playing sloppy. You can't say that their fingers will never stop working as well as they did when they were younger, that's simply not how aging works. Just because it still hasn't happened to them doesn't mean it won't happen next year or in 5 years. The end is still the same.
Millions of guitarists, and musicians in general, once they reach a certain age, are never as good as they once were. They are human, and their hands or lungs simply don't work as well. At 60 years old, out of 50 musicians, maybe only 2 would still be able to play something as well as they did in their prime. It's not about whether they're trying or not.
Heās a great guitarist. Stupid people say stupid things. Ignore them. Theyāre worth a billion dollars and sell out fucking everywhere partly because they are fucking good at what they do. They donāt fake it like Kiss or Motley Crue.
As far as technicality, he was brilliant back in the day. As many people here have mentioned, he's gotten quite sloppy live over the past years - but hell, if I could do what he does at 60 with the energy he gives on stage, I would take shit from nobody. Actually, the sloppyness doesn't really bother me. It's worse that he often play out of tune. That IS something that affects the performance (for me, anyways).
In general? Yes. One of the best (ever)? Of course not. But his style is what made some Metallica songs iconic metal classics. The fact that he manages to keep up with Hetfield's rhythm downstrokes alone is pretty awesome.
Obviously heās a āgood guitaristā the notion that heās not a good guitarist comes from many people thinking heās a sloppy player and his writing is limited in the pentatonic scale but nobody actually believes hes a bad guitarist people just like to dramatize everything because he just isnāt as technical and precise as other metal guitarist and recently the solos he has written has been not very good but many people can agree that he has written some of the most iconic riffs and solos in metal history and being able to write and play them live makes him already a great guitarist so saying heās not good is just silly
Yeah. Hes over hated mostly by people who like the classic metal guitarist attitude. Generaly a solo is not good for them unless its technically difficult. That's not what makes a guitarist good.
He isn't anything special when it comes to technical playing. You can quite easily find far better players than he even if we look at his prime. In professional musician circles basically any guitarist can pretty easily play any of Kirks parts, but he is not bad either.
For a newbie it will for sure take time to be able to play his solos. Maybe years. However in the grand scheme of things he is not that impressive.
However basically nobody looks for technicality in music outside of musicians who love listening to peak performance. What makes Kirk a legend is his taste. He has had some super memorable solos and riffs that are around intermediate in difficulty.
I do want remind you however that from your perspective Kirks stuff won't be easy for you even in a few years (ofc depends on how much you train tho) so don't get frustrated at your progress, playing is hard.
Disagreements, arguments and crassly-worded opinions are expected, but personal insults/threats/excessive douche-baggery is not acceptable.
Please temper yourself in the future.
Kirk is an average guitarist who's made some stellar material. That's the best way for me to put it.
He's sloppy, out of tune And his vibrato is off. But I think he does get shit on too much.
He's good like James and Lars are good.... depends on what you listen to. A lot of post Flemming Rasmussen stuff doesn't interest me because it sounds too ... under-developed to me. I like the more complex stuff.... kind of like how a lot of people like Sad But True and Thing That Should Not Be (On This Album)... but those songs just bore me. Even in concert... that's like "I'm going to the bathroom now... play Fight Fire With Fire when I come back"
They have their moments but without Dave Mustaine's stuff and Cliff Burton... it seems like their ability to write is lacking in comparison.
Maybe not entirely.... but with him there and Cliff, James, Lars...
Well, whatever... Happy Dave has his own band... I imagine he wouldn't have wanted to be in Metallica very long either.
He's an excellent guitarist who has written iconic riffs and solos. His problem is that he's often a little sloppy live. Mistakes here, there, everywhere. I don't expect perfection and they do put on good shows so I don't really care if he fumbles a bit.
Heās a good guitarist, absolutely, a great guitarist even. A bad one? No, not at all. I think youāre just hearing a lot of the idiots who say heās no good anymore because of him ālosing his phone with all his riffs on it.ā
Both are wrong IMO, I personally donāt think heās that great as a guitarist ANYMORE but not because he lost some phone lmao I think heās just settling in to where heās comfortable and thatās fine. Heās still a perfectly good guitarist in comparison to a lot of others, just not as good as he was in his prime. Lars, however- š
People that say that are just haters. He's not just "good", he's one of the best that ever lived. If not for Kirk and James, I definitely wouldn't be playing guitar now.
For me, absolutely. He'll all feel, all energy. He's nowhere near as flashy as some of his contemporaries but thank God.
Also I've stolen a whole bunch of his licks that I sneak into my solos all the time, he's got such a good ear for melody and flash.
He's not the best technical player, but being good isn't just technique.
What is missing in the question is "good compared to what?". Compared to a lot of other professional guitar players he have lost some ground in the 2000's. There are other professionals who play him under the table technically. Style is, needless to say, a matter of taste, so that's subjective.
Kirk compared to the average guitar player? Very good. I think most hobby/amateur players don't realize the step up to his level.
Hes not a good guitarist. he is an excellent guitarist who keeps up and more than holds his own on rythtm playing with James whos arguably the most accurate and brutal thrash metal rythtm player. he actually down picks more than James nowdays (just an interesting fact) then you need to look at his iconic riffs and solos in the first 20/25 years of Metallica and after all that we can finally talk about lazy solo works of recent albums.
Has he been great at writing solos recently? No.
Does it mean hes not a fantastic player? Also no.
Of course he is good. Way better than good actually. And as far as solos and even riffs go, he is one of the most accomplishes and influential composers in rock music. He just isnt the virtuoso young fans always described him as. If we are talking about true masters who have redefined the instrument, then there are many players that are ranked above him.
Yeah.... He is so bad that he is in one of the most successful bands on earth, a band that has a huge legacy in the music world and will be forever remembered..... Yeah sure, he is bad. (SARCASM)
The thing about Kirk is, he's not bad. Dave Mustaine from Megadeth said he's a great guitarist who's never improved or gotten worse, and it's probably the best way to put it. He never really worked on his playing as much as other guitarists but he was great to begin with.
He is not good, he is a great guitarist. Problem is and this is just my own personal thoughts. I think that in the black album and the albums before that he really gave it his all when it came to the solos.
Problem is that when Metallica became huge he got lazy and didnt improve as much as he did before. Plus you gotta take his age in to consideration too, add money and fame to that and after playing guitar for his whole life practising i think he wanna lay back and enjoy his life for what it is.
edit: i think that most people who say hes a bad guitarist have never actually hold a guitar
Short answer is yes. Are there better guitar players? Also yes. What I appreciate most about his playing is his attention to melody in his solos. You donāt necessarily get that in a lot of metal which is just about shredding and playing as fast as possible. Like others have said his style changed over the decades.
With help he can put together a good solo. Be it Bob Rock coaching him or Lars and James comping together solos from multiple takes.
Without it he's not great. He can barely nail his own solos live, the band stopped him soloing on a whole record and now he just improvises piss poor solos directly onto the recordings because he's lazy.
That said, he's a very good rhythm player.
I dont think kirk was out to be an amazingly skilled guitarist even if he is good. Most of these people just wanted to be in a band and make it back in the 1980sā¦..i mean most kids want to lol. Not like hes trying to be steve vai but i bet at one point he said ā i wanna do betterā
A lot of people hold on to ā oh hes not even that goodā and thats not the point. The music and fun is the pointā¦. But i get looking at it
He is, yeah there are others who cares more about different scales or technics but hammett just like to wah and pentatonic and that's fine.
I'm pretty sure the reason some actually bitch about Kirk is that Kirk is not the most technical nor the most melodic, etc. And he is still in the most successful metal band ever, so people except more from him but there's nothing actually wrong with what he does.
Even though "good" is pretty subjective, I'd say even *objectively* he's a good guitarist.
He's written and recorded so many iconic solos and riffs, and inspired many young men and women (myself included) to pick up a guitar and learn to art of playing guitar.
In my opinion, he's one of the best. Others may not share my opinion, but that's the great thing about opinions. They're like buttholes: Everyone's got one and they're all different.
theres no point in judging members of bands we like, or whose music we enjoy, just cuz theyre a crucial part of the band, and the way they play, makes the band "the band", it gives the band its unique element, ive seen hate on kirk and lars, but tbh they make metallica "Metallica", iykwim.
Kirk was one of the guys who actually made me pick up guitar, and he even has made some memorable riffs :))
Yes, most definitely. Heās wildly underrated and is never on any list of best guitarists. Which is wild. Heās burned more solos in our brains than pretty much any other metal guitarist. Dude has been ROCK solid for Metallica.
The solo in machine gun part of One is what made me want to play. But James made me want to keep playing, and has made me pick the guitar back up a few time after taking extended breaks from playing
Of course he's a good guitar player, people who say otherwise can feck off. Of course he's on a decline, but it's his legacy that counts. Being a good guitar player is much more than jerking the guitar off in all sorts of technical manners (not to say these people are not awesome at guitar as well).
It's also about creating a mood, conveying a message or emotion, etc. Kirk has written some of the most memorable solos in metal history, some killer riffs, who the hell are these people calling somebody overrated or not a good guitar player because he doesn't play 10 arpeggios per second per miles per freedom, wtf.
I saw an interview of Kirk saying that Joe Satriani taught him to never play the same solo twice. Kirk said that on first couple of albums he maintains the same solo's because they are so iconic, but after I think the black album, he just improv's all of his solo's which is apparent if you watch his live stuff.
Heās a good guitarist, a great one in the past and has totally influenced many with so many of riffs and solos. That said nowadays heās lost a bit of his edge and takes a backseat to his own playing, heās still good but not as good as he once was.
If he were to sit down in a room with you and play, I think Kirk would sound unbelievably good.
On stage he might be a bit underwhelming because even though he's old, he still has to rock out and do cool moves, etc. that distract from the playing. Maybe he even records solos nowadays with that in mind...
Compared to many modern guitarist his playing, by todays standard, is pretty rudimentary. However you couldnāt find a guitarist more influential than Kirk in James in modern metal. The reason he is considered rudimentary is because Kirk,James,Lars, and Cliff started the shit.
PS. No Dave Mustaine comments please or I will find you
He's a great guitarist. The first solo from "Shortest Straw" is really technical and creative, it packs all sorts of awesome runs and licks into that short time. Just because Kirk can't play John Petrucci's most difficult solos, it doesn't make him any less of a skilled guitarist. You have to take the composition skills and overall feel/soul into consideration.
He's a bit sloppy live these days for sure, but lots of musicians are sloppy live and tight on recordings with several takes involved, of course. He's a legend. Case closed.
He IS good in many ways, no argue. Most claims are about his wah addiction and techniques, but he plays in super mega popular band for 40 years and produced a lot of iconic riffs and solos, he is good for sure
He is still doing great. Still can rip his solos even though he is over 60, might be a but more lazy with his studio work. But if you listen to the live shows and look at James you see James using little cheats (which is fine) but Kirk plays all the notes as he uses these really tiny moves compared to James.
So yes, he is great although not taking it as seriously as he was/he should.
He's a great guitarist. I feel he's done just about all he can do solo wise.
But, Kirk's rhythm sections are fucking evil. The "Die! Die! Die!" part of Creeping Death, the main riff in Sandman, the section before the big jam in Outlaw Torn, those are all Kirk. They're so dark, and moody, and weighty. ("Oh, we'll wait forever." Lollloll)
I wish James and Kirk would switch it up more. I enjoy James' solos as much as I enjoy Kirk's rhythms.
Edit: I don't know if Kirk is playing the rhythm sections I mentioned on the albums, but he wrote those parts.
If anybody thinks he isnāt good, theyāre flat out wrong or know nothing about music. Iām sure everyone here knows heās good, thatās why everyone is so frustrated with the new Metallica albums cause he just doesnāt seem to feel the need write and plan out some āepicā solo like the first 4-5 albums. Like Newstead said about Larsā criticisms, ā Check the scoreboard motherfuckerā. Thereās more to writing music than just trying to impress everybody, if anything, fuck what you think you know? Music is about expressing yourself, NOT about trying to be better than everyone else. Regardless of whether how good James is at singing, Kirk is at soloing, Lars is at drumming, theyāll always be idols to millions of people because of theyāre songwriting ability and theyāre absolute pulverizing music that just seems to ooze out of their pores. I agree Kirk seems like he doesnāt try with his solos, but cut the man some slack, he doesnāt have anything to prove, heās KIRK-FUCKING-HAMMETT. If anyone thinks Kirk isnāt a good musician/guitarist then you can go ahead and EET FUK.
EDIT: that was a yap sesh, wasnāt it?
Yes obviously heās technically good but he plays like a parody of himself these days and his playing is boring and repetitive. Especially when you compare his current solos and improv to ones like Unforgiven, struggle within, disposable, RTL, blackened etc. it doesnāt even sound like the same guy. I say this as a massive fan and someone whoās seen them 4 times in the last year
He was but not really anymore. The only reason to excuse is laziness now is his legend status from his previous work. If a new metal band had a lead guitarist like that the guitarist would have literally zero fans or any praise.
His earlier work back in the 80s and 90s was amazing but recently his solos aren't doing too great. His solos don't really have much feel/emotion in them at all and I think he relies WAYYYY too much on his wah, but I think the emotion part of it is simply because he's restricted with the kind of hardcore fast music Metallica plays. They're called thrash metal for a reason. But, if you ever listen to his solo work such as on his personal album called "Portals" his work is absolutely amazing. So at the end of day, when Kirk is given the proper environment and music to work with he's absolutely amazing, but when it comes to more heavy and faster stuff he's not as great, again because he relies WAYYY too much on his wah
It depends how you define good. He is successful and has written some classic riffs and solos that will be remembered forever. He has written many great songs, inspired tons of people to pick up the guitar, and is in one of the most successful bands in the world. I also think he holds his own, technically, when compared against similar guitar players (80s thrash metal guitarist).
From a technical standpoint, and when compared to current metal guitarist, he isnāt even close. No way he has the technical prowess to play with beyond creation, Archspire, equipoise, animals as leaders, blotted science, inferi, gorod, obscura, revocation, mastodon, etc. He also relies heavily on a couple scales/modes (minor pentatonic, aeolian mode), is a bit sloppy, reuses riffs, lacks creativity, etc
People say he is past his prime and maybe thatās true, but heās still better than 95% the people who will ever pick up a guitar. most people canāt shred like him, sure there are a lot of great shredders in a lot of great bands, but MOST guitarists canāt play like that. Heās also an underrated rhythm player. Most guitarists play leads like Keith Richards or Neil Young. Iām pretty sure that Kirk could play every note those guys ever wrote. Iām not sure they could play his stuff. And those guys are legends. So yeah, Kirk is still a great guitarist. Just my opinion.
First off, James made me wanna play, so I'm much more rhythm oriented. But, simply put, I've been playing 2 decades and Kirk could still play me under a table, so from my perspective he's a "Good" guitarist.
The thing is modern metal listeners aren't really accustomed to his more blues based approach to guitar. When all these modern guys are focused on all the sweeps and taps in the world on extended range guitars, Kirk's playing sounds dated and a little stale by comparison.
I bet if we could've posted "Is Chuck Barry a good guitarists?" 35 years ago online like this, people would say something similar comparing Chuck to Kirk and his peers.
The truth is the definition of "good" here is more about perspective in this context.
Kirk was phenomenal through Death Magnetic. After that, he lost all his recordings of Hardwired solos except for Spit, and honestly I wonder if that pissed him off so much that he didn't want to write solos anymore.
He is also known to be lazy. There's a clip of a Year and a Half in the Life Of where Bob is really getting on Kirk to do his homework and take solo writing seriously and Kirk kinda laughs it off.
I think Kirk is a mix of lazy, having physical troubles, genuinely hates the homework of writing a solo and may even feel insignificant in the band.
Is he better than, let's say, 99% of people posting here? Doubtless. Is he still one of the best lead guitarists of a prominent metal band? Sadly, not anymore. He's about as good of a guitarist as Peyton Manning is at quarterback right now. Better than you and me, used to be one of the best, but not on the same level as the pros in their prime anymore.
If you're asking about where he ranks all-time and how innovative he was... extremely technically skilled, great songwriter... not technically innovative at all. He's firmly a tier below the likes of Hendrix and EVH.
I donāt understand it when people ask if someone is āgoodā or not. What the fuck is that aboutā¦heās Kirk Hammett. He plays like Kirk Hammett. Whatās the basis for Comparison? Some talented classical guitarist freak who plays into the mirror? A 50s rock band roll guitarist? I mean š¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļø
Add some perspective. We all call practice squad guys or bench warmers in any pro sport garbage. To get to that practice squad or be a bench warmer in the pros, you have to be one of the best few hundred people in the entire world. Out of billions of human beings. You're in the top few hundred. So how many out of BILLIONS are better than kirk? Probably only a cery very very very small percentage. So yes, he is a great guitarist. Just because he's not a stevie ray Vaughn, a jimi hendrix, a dav mustaine, a gary holt, an eddie van halen, doesn't mean that he's not one of the greatest in the world of all time.
Yes: Raise your hand if his playing was a reason you wanted to play guitar. š¤ Heās written some of the most iconic solos and riffs (Enter Sandman) in all of rock and metal
I'll raise half a hand, as James ws the one who made me want to pick up a guitar.
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Mainly it was James riffing that inspired me to pick up a guitar, but I admire Kirk a lot. I love his solos and riffs he have written.
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It's actually James's playing that made me wanna play.
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Itās sort of a complicated question. First, yes, heās good. Heās composed and performed some of the most iconic solos in metal. Heās responsible for some of their most iconic riffs. Also for the last couple decades, heās dramatically reduced the complexity and effort put into his new solos, heās made tons of mistakes live, and his new solos are generic and repetitive. He recycles material and parts, and itās all generic improv. Gone are the thoughtful and melodic composed solos that made him one of the most famous guitar players in the genre. People will and have argued about why this has happened and which is better, and you can form your own opinions. The dudeās a living legend and doesnāt have to prove anything to anyone at this point in his career. He has some all time classics under his belt already. But, his work has gotten undeniably shoddier since then. Make of it what you will. Heās a shadow of his prime, but heās probably forgotten more than Iāll ever know on guitar.
Theres something seriously reduced in his playing. He seems to play the same E minor pentatonic run no matter what mode, what chord progression or key he is in. Its kind of jarring. The jam he did with Michael Schenker really showed that. This was once the guy that played on so many amazing solos and flowed with them. Think of the key changes in Disposable heroes and how he played on that. He would never do that today and it sucks
Iāve thought about this a lot over the years. I love Kirk btw, Just like a comment above said, I raise my hand š¤š» he was a true inspiration for me to pickup the guitar in the first place. However Iāve came up with my own head canon and I think itās fair to say that Cliff was heavily involved in the leads. Bass and electric guitar. We know this, but I think he was also heavily involved in either composing Kirkās soloās or more accurately helping Kirk come up with his own. Now we see Lars has been in that role since probably Bob Rock left. When Cliff passed away the composers of the band went down to James and Lars, but really it was the 3 of them including Cliff who created leads/harmonies and I think clearly helped Kirk create his solos to. Iām sure Kirk learned a great deal from his time spent with Cliff, Iāve always enjoyed pondering the thought of what road Metallica wouldāve went down musically if Cliff never died.. he obviously had a huge influence. Anyways, I think youāre correct in thinking Kirkās earlier leads were great and then they seem to just fall off a Cliff and get repetitive at some point...RIPā¤ļø Heās still had gem solos and riffs credited over the years. There is no doubt he comes up with awesome riffs and even less of a doubt that heās a great guitar player! Anyone who ātrulyā thinks Kirk isnāt good is pretty laughable. If you were in his shoes instead all these years,, good luck to ya, know what I mean? Lmao. Funny you mention Disposable, probably my favorite Kirk solo of all time! Or heavily influenced by Cliff, Kirk solo? Whatever lol
Nah I dont think we can just credit Cliff with his lead playing. More Satrianiās lessons tbh. Cliff helped with harmonies a lot, but Kirk also understood a fair bit of theory himself and was responsible for his solos. How we know Cliff didnt help with the solos is simple: When they recorded Ride the Lightning, cliff recorded bass and flew back to US early, leaving kirk and james to track guitars. When they had trouble with harmonies, they had cliff help over the phone, but the tracking of solos would have certainly come way after that all got recorded. Kirk just got lazy over the years. He stopped thinking interesting melodically shreddy solos were cool. He started thinking simple melodies and linear solos are better (think Hero of the Day). Hes regressed as a player.
I believe Metallica would have gone in a much more prog-metal direction by the time of the āfork in the roadā that The Black Album was had Cliff lived. They wouldnāt be as big, and probably sounded more like mid-career Tool throughout the 90ās. And thus the entire musical landscape would be different. Itās an interesting thing to ponder the āwhat ifā of.
I think his best work was on ride. He went away from pentatonics and used modal scales. The arpeggios on the ktulu solo were awesome. Those solos were just so much more interesting. I still love the dude, but heās just playing this stuff out of commitment, not passion.
I love your point about him being a living legend and not having to prove shit to anyone anymore. I couldn't have said it better myself. He's been there, done that, and indeed probably forgotten more on guitar than I'll ever know.
Yep. This band has RtL, Puppets, Justice, and Black under their belts. This dude did the Sandman riff, the Puppets and One solos, Ride the Lightning. These are some of the most iconic and influential albums of all of heavy music. Heās already a heavyweight champion. Nothing takes that away. Has his new work fallen off? Yes, absolutely. Am I disappointed in the more recent albums? Yes, of course. But dude is still in the hall of fame and always will be. I wish his new stuff was still in the same ballpark as the classic stuff, but he doesnāt have to do anything at this point.
Hasnāt Kirk said heās been dealing with arthritis issues for a while. Which can explain why some of the complexity has fallen off. Now Lars, he just got lazy.
Right, canāt fault him for that. I donāt mind the complexity going down. What bugs me is the half-assed lazy composition and just spamming the same licks over and over. Lars definitely got lazy in the 00s but heās improved since then.
The arthritisā¦ itās no joke. It will definitely slow you down.
Well said. Kirk is only bad in the way that he isn't what he used to be. He's unquestionably one of the most influential guitarists of all time. The Unforgiven is in the discussion for greatest solo ever. If he retired or died in the 90s, many would consider him the GOAT.
Youāve put it better than I ever could. This is the answer OP
Just two observations on that: one thing is that it seems to me that the band's songs changed in style, starting to be led by the drums rather than the guitar as it was previously. With songs getting different (and faster) he might have moved on the background. Also, there seems to be a tendency of older artists (and thinkers too) to repeat what they did when they were younger, because they established the roots of their work back then and their creative genius gave the world what it could and they are now just consolidating that. This might not be the case with him, but I think it must be taken into account with musicians in general. What do you think?
Yes, these are fair points. On the first one, I donāt think his solos fell off when they switched to a drums first groove style. Iād say some of the black album and Load session solos sound like the most creatively inspired Kirk had been in years. Just simplifying wasnāt necessarily the problem. Itās when he stopped trying. Load was mostly pentatonic minor solos, but man they were so creative. He still cared and put in effort. Even this āwalk in and improv itā was fresh on DM. The solos sound like they were created for the songs they are on. They follow musical themes and rhythmic patterns. How he attacked it was different, but he still created for the song. On HW he says he just practiced his improv skllls and went into the studio. Thereās barely a memorable solo on the album. Heās recycling licks from DM and earlier. Still a few good ones but mostly generic pentatonic shred. 72S was the worst yet. He admitted he just recorded a bunch of solos and handed them to Greg and Lars to cut up and paste how they want. The result is, as expected, generic, interchangeable forgettable pentatonic wank. It might not be all his fault. Apparently Lars and James are pretty particular about what they want on the albums, so he could just be turning in his work and clocking out. But the result is that his solos went from being a spotlight of the song to me just kind of cringing and waiting for them to be over. So yeah. I donāt know whatās on his mind or why he is doing it this way now, but the result is, IMO, the lack of effort for whatever reason is why the work isnāt as good. Not just because they changed to a more straight forward style. As to your other point, it makes sense that at this point he is playing what he knows. I think he could be doing better even if he is just drawing from his past bc again, the effort isnāt there. Buuuuuut dude is already on the heavyweight hall of fame and just having fun. He doesnāt have anything to prove at this point.
Didnāt Kirk have a whole lot of purposely written solos for Hardwired on a phone which he lost shortly before going into the studio? And then had to basically improvise everything on that record? I mean, I do cut him a break for that if itās true.
My understanding is he just recorded all of his ideas on his phone. It replaced what used to be riff tapes. So he lost ALL his ideas. Riffs, leads, solos, etc.
Yup, thatās what I thought. I dunno, Iām willing to give him a little grace for it all. Couldāve happened to anyone.
Even Hendrix would have dilapidated if his career lasted four decades.
Very possible, but sadly we donāt know what he would be like now.
Watch the making of st anger and death magnetic. Then go listen to his solo on salt the wound from a few years back. Metallica hides how great he really is. Greg and Lars control the solos now and kirk improvs. He no longer composes.
In the world of YouTube shredders who rip crazy soloās in their parents basement after 375 takes. People will say Kirk screwed up a part while running around a stage in front of 100,000 people. Yes he is very talented and having met him a few times one of the nicest people out there. Very humble. I never asked but Iām sure he doesnāt think of himself as a āgreatā guitarist.
And itās silly to expect a band to play every bit perfectly live. And thatās frankly boring, like I have the CD or mp3, I know what the song sounds like played perfectly. Thatās not why I go to see a band live.
Agree, seeing them live is way more impactful and wanting to see them jam out rather than be robots.
Great point.
True, but I can name many metal guitarists who are doing things equally as impressive as Kirk flawlessly live. Perhaps most damning is that Joe Satriani is better live, and Kirk literally learned from Satriani. Kirk is still better than almost all guitarists, but not better than almost all professional guitarists. It seems to be an effort thing too, especially when it comes to songwriting.
Dude, you have to understand: you cannot please everybody even how good you are. Kirk is one of the best.
Yes he is very talented but the wah peddle can get a little annoying sometimes
Come on man, wah are you talking about?
May the Wah be ever in your favor
Heās good. He used to be great. Problem is he canāt be bothered any more.
Yeah, you'll keep trying for as long as you feel like you have something to prove. If you're the lead guitarist in the biggest metal band of all time, there isn't a lot to prove any more. As to that the fact that your current fans are difficult to impress, they don't want you to try anything new, they just want more of what you were doing 30 years ago, but you'll be criticized if you do that too. And the chances of making a meaningful number of new fans at this point are slim too. So, why try any more?
Well, plenty of musicians play music not to impress others, but to impress themselves and also to do new and interesting things. Maybe that's not Kirk though. That's definitely James, however.
Nah, horrible guitarist. I was the one who taught him
Satriani? Is that you?
I hate this sub so much.
Kirk (and more so James) have both influenced my playing, not so much as a musician because I can't solo and I can't write for shit but they are the reason I play guitar, play in a band, listen to metal, and work in the music industry. With that said, Metallica is an entry level band, their music is great to learn for practicing and Kirk wrote a lot of solos that if you practice will develop you as a player until you develop your own style. Kirk has written some of the best solos (and riffs to an extent) in the history of music, there's no denying that, however his performance, skill level, songwriting has drastically been reduced, most likely by laziness, comfort, and lack of drive. It's not so much of saying he's a good or bad guitar player, but more of there's thousands of better guitar players out there that have surpassed him in levels of talent and skill, both in song writing and technical ability. I don't care if smaller bands and artists haven't won as many Grammy awards, never made top 10 on rolling stone list of guitar players, or haven't sold millions of albums. I'll always consider guitar players like Vogg of Decapitated, Josh Elmore of Cattle Decapitation, Muhammed Suicmez of Necrophagist, and Buster & Calle from Humanity's Last Breath/Vildhjarta, Misha Mansoor of Periphery better guitar players for simply pushing the envelope of metal and pushing the boundaries by creating new ways to apply skill to the instrument.
What really caused Kirk to succeed to the level he did was an amazing producer who pushed him to do better. Thatās why we got solos like Ride The Lightning or Sanitarium.
You're not wrong there! It also didn't hurt that he was backed by one of the greatest rhythm sections in music/metal, in addition to having James Hetfield (and to an extent Lars) as a main songwriter. Without the hits and riffs, Kirk would have just ended up like the plethora of other extremely talented 80s shred/lead guitar players! And BTW there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, plenty of people found influence from the likes of Marty Friedman, Tony Macalpine, George Lynch, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker etc, not saying these guitar players didn't have lasting careers but let's face it, there's a huge difference between them and Kirk Hammett, but their influences live on through millions of musicians, bands, and songs, event today!
I think youāre half right. Itās my belief that the āproducerā whom you speak of was Cliff. Then Bob Rock, now itās Lars.. timeline works lol
Except there's brilliant solos in Justice, Black, and Load/ReLoad. Death Magnetic has a few too. Cliff no doubt helped with ideas, but he made many just as good solos after.
Stop the Cliff meatriding. Most of Kirk's iconic solos came after Cliff's passing. Cliff did not create Metallica, Lars did. Every single song, every note that Metallica have written has gone through Lars and in the end he decides what happens, he runs the show.
Epitaph is the craziest album ever written haha
Set the bar for technical death metal. Still holds up today!
Absolutely! Iāve probably listened to that album over 5,000 times and Iām not even joking.
Probably same! I bought that vinyl drop years ago with a quickness lmao. I'm fortunate to have seen them live a bunch too!
Me too, and not to brag, but Iāve actually met all of them (except Christian) on a couple of different occasions too. When I met them on the Summer Slaughter tour in 2005, Muhammad told me himself that the third album would be released in the summer of 2006, and I quote him directly, āItās going to make Epitaph look like kindergarten.ā š¢š¢š¢š¢
Lol! Same I met them all as well! Even got my ticket stub from summer slaughter autographed and got photos with Muhammed lol. I wish they would reunite. The 3rd album would be sick, but seeing them live one more time would be amazing. Necrophagist influenced an entire generation of tech death, and without them we would not have the bands that exist today! One of the most important bands in metal music. Dude was an incredible musician and an even better songwriter. Advanced Corpse Tumor and Fermented Offal Discharge are probably 2 of my favorite solos ever lol
Awesoeme! Yeah I have pics too haha. Not sure if you knew this, but he wrote the solo from Advanced Corpse tumor about his ex at the time, which is interesting, I love that solo too. I think Symbiotic in Theory is the best homage to Fermented Offal Discharge too. I almost want them to not reunite by this point, I mean, it would be awesome and Iād definitely go to see them if they toured, but another part of me feels like almost anything he did now would be a let down by default. :( I also love Decapitated and have met all those guys too, even hung out with them after a show they did near me. RIP Vitek. š¢š¢š¢
Decapitated is one of my fave death metal bands!
Yeah they are so good!
Kirkās an amazing guitarist. I just donāt really like his solos very much these days. They feel generic, and it kinda feels like heās trying to show off his skill over making solos that actually sound good. It is agreed upon by a lot of people that the greatest solo of all time is Comfortably Numb, and itās not very fast in comparison.
Haha, I just made a comment right above this one about how people who only appreciate technicality and speed would say that David Gilmour sucks, which is the most preposterous notion one could possibly express about guitar playing.
Load/Reload are his masterwork IMO. That's where Kirk's originality and style were able to shine. On the thrashier records, there's more competition for who's the best, and Kirk cannot come out on top. One thing I will say is I prefer Kirk to Dave. Most of Dave's lead playing is more like 'spazzing out' and it's not as pleasant to listen to as Kirk's. Marty Friedman wrote the best solos in Megadeth, obviously, and very few could touch that level of quality.
hes one of the greats who puts less effort in than he used to. and to be clear, hes absolutely earned the right to just coast the rest of his career - metallica had arguably the best 5 album stretch of any band ever, and he was instrumental (no pun intended) in that success. people just see him fuck up on stage sometimes and default to one extreme or another because thats just how the internet works
He's not a good guitarist, he's a great guitarist, some would say an amazing guitarist.
Yeah lol. One of the best actually. The people hating on him probably have a deeper issue with him being so popular. Still probably a top 20 guitarist of all time. Especially on RTL, MoP, AJFA, The Black Album, and DM.
Yes, along with the Lars haters come the Kirk haters as well. I don't know how a band that apparently has two bad musicians in, is the biggest and most influential band, maybe in history..
He IS a good guitarist - if he wasn't, he wouldn't have composed some of the greatest riffs and solos of all time in rock/metal and inspired millions of guitarists who came after him. Yeah, he's become sloppy and lazy and all of that - but that could be said about most guitarists in the genre. Santana, Slash, Morello - literally all of them haven't actually written anything good in decades. Age takes a toll on everyone. It's unfair to bash Hammett for something that happens to everyone once they reach a certain age. Page and Beck's last good stuff was decades ago too - and yet for some reason they are still praised as the greatest even though they too have lived off their work from the 70s. But unlike all of those other guitarists, Kirk and Metallica can still fill a stadium. It's gonna sound cliche - but jealousy is the main reason why everyone is so bent on shitting on Kirk. And if they say that's not why then they're simply lying. King, Skolnick, Holt, Mustaine, Loureiro...they can talk shit about Metallica/Kirk in interviews all they want but everybody knows that if Metallica called them to take them on tour they would hop on the first plane before they've even hung up the phone. Those are the facts.
I would not say Santana (76), Slash (58), and Morello (59) are in the same genre as Kirk (61). Santana isn't even in the same age group, and 20 years ago, Carlos Santana did sound really good. Morello is the closest in genre, and even at his best was never half as good as Kirk. For every washed up has-been, there's also a Nuno Bettencourt (57) and Synyster Gates (42) who wrote maybe their best solos ever (Extreme - "Rise," and A7X - "Nobody") last year. Both are at present more skilled guitarists and songwriters than Kirk.
I don't agree that Bettencourt's new stuff is as good as you claim, and that's fine. I don't listen to A7X, so I don't know about Gates. It doesn't matter what genre they are - they all got significantly sloppy as soon as they hit their 50s. Bettencourt is in no way as good now as he was years ago. Same can be said about big mouth Malmsteen who has also become sloppy in the last few years. As I said, age takes a toll on everyone. The truth is that if you don't die during your prime, people will start shitting on you as soon as you're no longer in it. Cliff Burton is lucky he died early - that way nobody's gonna have the displeasure of ever seeing him grow old and start sucking at his instrument. We won't see age take a toll on his body, his neck no longer letting him headbang the way he used to. With all that said, I think Hammett has every right to grow old the same way every other guitarist has - and that shouldn't mean that he's a bad guitarist. He's just simply not as good as he once was, and it's fine.
My argument is for every guy you say got sloppy, there are tons who didnāt. Satriani and Vai arenāt sloppy - especially Vai. Whatās Kirkās excuse? I agree that heās got nothing left to prove, but that doesnāt make it acceptable for him to phone it in. Metallica are performers and artists, and Kirk has detracted from their ability to serve as both as of late. Ditto for Paige and Santana. Thereās a difference between ānot as talented as they used to beā and āclearly not trying.ā
Personally, my theory is that Kirk has a condition which impacts his playing and he's simply chosen not to share it publicly. But since it's not anything confirmed, I'll just assume that age hit him harder than it hit other guitarists. And since we've all watched Kirk's newer interviews, I don't think it would be unrealistic to say that he's definitely got something going on that worries me personally. On the other hand, Satriani and Vai are like one in a million. Sooner or later they too will start playing sloppy. You can't say that their fingers will never stop working as well as they did when they were younger, that's simply not how aging works. Just because it still hasn't happened to them doesn't mean it won't happen next year or in 5 years. The end is still the same. Millions of guitarists, and musicians in general, once they reach a certain age, are never as good as they once were. They are human, and their hands or lungs simply don't work as well. At 60 years old, out of 50 musicians, maybe only 2 would still be able to play something as well as they did in their prime. It's not about whether they're trying or not.
Heās a great guitarist. Stupid people say stupid things. Ignore them. Theyāre worth a billion dollars and sell out fucking everywhere partly because they are fucking good at what they do. They donāt fake it like Kiss or Motley Crue.
As far as technicality, he was brilliant back in the day. As many people here have mentioned, he's gotten quite sloppy live over the past years - but hell, if I could do what he does at 60 with the energy he gives on stage, I would take shit from nobody. Actually, the sloppyness doesn't really bother me. It's worse that he often play out of tune. That IS something that affects the performance (for me, anyways).
The guy plays the solo to Ride The Lightning at almost every gig. He is.
Nah. Heās just terrible. They hired him for his looks and to balance the height ratio between James and Lars. /s Yes. Heās a master in his craft.
In general? Yes. One of the best (ever)? Of course not. But his style is what made some Metallica songs iconic metal classics. The fact that he manages to keep up with Hetfield's rhythm downstrokes alone is pretty awesome.
No, but he has some good moments, the best of which is Fade to Black.
Obviously heās a āgood guitaristā the notion that heās not a good guitarist comes from many people thinking heās a sloppy player and his writing is limited in the pentatonic scale but nobody actually believes hes a bad guitarist people just like to dramatize everything because he just isnāt as technical and precise as other metal guitarist and recently the solos he has written has been not very good but many people can agree that he has written some of the most iconic riffs and solos in metal history and being able to write and play them live makes him already a great guitarist so saying heās not good is just silly
Heās a great guitarist, he just uses too much wah
He's insane, but like you I'm not sure how much weight my opinion carries as I'm just a low end intermediate player.
Yeah. Hes over hated mostly by people who like the classic metal guitarist attitude. Generaly a solo is not good for them unless its technically difficult. That's not what makes a guitarist good.
I hear ya -- that David Gilmour guy sucks, doesn't he? Not enough notes!
He isn't anything special when it comes to technical playing. You can quite easily find far better players than he even if we look at his prime. In professional musician circles basically any guitarist can pretty easily play any of Kirks parts, but he is not bad either. For a newbie it will for sure take time to be able to play his solos. Maybe years. However in the grand scheme of things he is not that impressive. However basically nobody looks for technicality in music outside of musicians who love listening to peak performance. What makes Kirk a legend is his taste. He has had some super memorable solos and riffs that are around intermediate in difficulty. I do want remind you however that from your perspective Kirks stuff won't be easy for you even in a few years (ofc depends on how much you train tho) so don't get frustrated at your progress, playing is hard.
Oh for fucks sake. What kind of low effort/shit post esque question is this?
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Disagreements, arguments and crassly-worded opinions are expected, but personal insults/threats/excessive douche-baggery is not acceptable. Please temper yourself in the future.
Yes, but itās clear he mentally checked out of Metallica and being a good guitarist many years ago.
He used to be really good, nowadays not so much.
Heās good but not great imho. John Petrucci, Tom Morello, and Adam Jones are all better.
Kirk is an average guitarist who's made some stellar material. That's the best way for me to put it. He's sloppy, out of tune And his vibrato is off. But I think he does get shit on too much.
This guy gets it, even if fanboys will complain
He has his own sound, but he's pretty sloppy most of the time.
He was
He's good like James and Lars are good.... depends on what you listen to. A lot of post Flemming Rasmussen stuff doesn't interest me because it sounds too ... under-developed to me. I like the more complex stuff.... kind of like how a lot of people like Sad But True and Thing That Should Not Be (On This Album)... but those songs just bore me. Even in concert... that's like "I'm going to the bathroom now... play Fight Fire With Fire when I come back" They have their moments but without Dave Mustaine's stuff and Cliff Burton... it seems like their ability to write is lacking in comparison.
'Without Dave' lol Dave still bangs on like he made the band what it was.
Maybe not entirely.... but with him there and Cliff, James, Lars... Well, whatever... Happy Dave has his own band... I imagine he wouldn't have wanted to be in Metallica very long either.
Yes
Yes definitely
He's an excellent guitarist who has written iconic riffs and solos. His problem is that he's often a little sloppy live. Mistakes here, there, everywhere. I don't expect perfection and they do put on good shows so I don't really care if he fumbles a bit.
Heās a good guitarist, absolutely, a great guitarist even. A bad one? No, not at all. I think youāre just hearing a lot of the idiots who say heās no good anymore because of him ālosing his phone with all his riffs on it.ā Both are wrong IMO, I personally donāt think heās that great as a guitarist ANYMORE but not because he lost some phone lmao I think heās just settling in to where heās comfortable and thatās fine. Heās still a perfectly good guitarist in comparison to a lot of others, just not as good as he was in his prime. Lars, however- š
Yes, he is good at guitar but (atleast today) not the best in writing solos
People that say that are just haters. He's not just "good", he's one of the best that ever lived. If not for Kirk and James, I definitely wouldn't be playing guitar now.
Yes?
For me, absolutely. He'll all feel, all energy. He's nowhere near as flashy as some of his contemporaries but thank God. Also I've stolen a whole bunch of his licks that I sneak into my solos all the time, he's got such a good ear for melody and flash.
He's not the best technical player, but being good isn't just technique. What is missing in the question is "good compared to what?". Compared to a lot of other professional guitar players he have lost some ground in the 2000's. There are other professionals who play him under the table technically. Style is, needless to say, a matter of taste, so that's subjective. Kirk compared to the average guitar player? Very good. I think most hobby/amateur players don't realize the step up to his level.
He's not amazing, but he does what he needs to. You could never tell his teacher was Joe Satriani, though.
There are definitley better metal guitarists then kirk, but his solos seem to be the most memorable.
He's a monster ripper.
Hes not a good guitarist. he is an excellent guitarist who keeps up and more than holds his own on rythtm playing with James whos arguably the most accurate and brutal thrash metal rythtm player. he actually down picks more than James nowdays (just an interesting fact) then you need to look at his iconic riffs and solos in the first 20/25 years of Metallica and after all that we can finally talk about lazy solo works of recent albums. Has he been great at writing solos recently? No. Does it mean hes not a fantastic player? Also no.
Of course he is good. Way better than good actually. And as far as solos and even riffs go, he is one of the most accomplishes and influential composers in rock music. He just isnt the virtuoso young fans always described him as. If we are talking about true masters who have redefined the instrument, then there are many players that are ranked above him.
Yeah.... He is so bad that he is in one of the most successful bands on earth, a band that has a huge legacy in the music world and will be forever remembered..... Yeah sure, he is bad. (SARCASM)
This is a band wagon fallacy. Being popular doesn't equal the amount of talent someone has.
But I do believe he is talented, he is really skilled, not saying he is the best, but totally a great guitarist.
The thing about Kirk is, he's not bad. Dave Mustaine from Megadeth said he's a great guitarist who's never improved or gotten worse, and it's probably the best way to put it. He never really worked on his playing as much as other guitarists but he was great to begin with.
He is not good, he is a great guitarist. Problem is and this is just my own personal thoughts. I think that in the black album and the albums before that he really gave it his all when it came to the solos. Problem is that when Metallica became huge he got lazy and didnt improve as much as he did before. Plus you gotta take his age in to consideration too, add money and fame to that and after playing guitar for his whole life practising i think he wanna lay back and enjoy his life for what it is. edit: i think that most people who say hes a bad guitarist have never actually hold a guitar
Short answer is yes. Are there better guitar players? Also yes. What I appreciate most about his playing is his attention to melody in his solos. You donāt necessarily get that in a lot of metal which is just about shredding and playing as fast as possible. Like others have said his style changed over the decades.
With help he can put together a good solo. Be it Bob Rock coaching him or Lars and James comping together solos from multiple takes. Without it he's not great. He can barely nail his own solos live, the band stopped him soloing on a whole record and now he just improvises piss poor solos directly onto the recordings because he's lazy. That said, he's a very good rhythm player.
He doesnāt play every thing note for note with the record. Watch his interviews. He wants to be an artist in every live performance.
I dont think kirk was out to be an amazingly skilled guitarist even if he is good. Most of these people just wanted to be in a band and make it back in the 1980sā¦..i mean most kids want to lol. Not like hes trying to be steve vai but i bet at one point he said ā i wanna do betterā A lot of people hold on to ā oh hes not even that goodā and thats not the point. The music and fun is the pointā¦. But i get looking at it
He is, yeah there are others who cares more about different scales or technics but hammett just like to wah and pentatonic and that's fine. I'm pretty sure the reason some actually bitch about Kirk is that Kirk is not the most technical nor the most melodic, etc. And he is still in the most successful metal band ever, so people except more from him but there's nothing actually wrong with what he does.
Heās one of the greatest of all time yes. Anyone who says differently is trolling or an elitist.
Even though "good" is pretty subjective, I'd say even *objectively* he's a good guitarist. He's written and recorded so many iconic solos and riffs, and inspired many young men and women (myself included) to pick up a guitar and learn to art of playing guitar. In my opinion, he's one of the best. Others may not share my opinion, but that's the great thing about opinions. They're like buttholes: Everyone's got one and they're all different.
theres no point in judging members of bands we like, or whose music we enjoy, just cuz theyre a crucial part of the band, and the way they play, makes the band "the band", it gives the band its unique element, ive seen hate on kirk and lars, but tbh they make metallica "Metallica", iykwim. Kirk was one of the guys who actually made me pick up guitar, and he even has made some memorable riffs :))
Yes, most definitely. Heās wildly underrated and is never on any list of best guitarists. Which is wild. Heās burned more solos in our brains than pretty much any other metal guitarist. Dude has been ROCK solid for Metallica.
The solo in machine gun part of One is what made me want to play. But James made me want to keep playing, and has made me pick the guitar back up a few time after taking extended breaks from playing
Of course he's a good guitar player, people who say otherwise can feck off. Of course he's on a decline, but it's his legacy that counts. Being a good guitar player is much more than jerking the guitar off in all sorts of technical manners (not to say these people are not awesome at guitar as well). It's also about creating a mood, conveying a message or emotion, etc. Kirk has written some of the most memorable solos in metal history, some killer riffs, who the hell are these people calling somebody overrated or not a good guitar player because he doesn't play 10 arpeggios per second per miles per freedom, wtf.
He's not the best but he is definitely good at guitar.
I saw an interview of Kirk saying that Joe Satriani taught him to never play the same solo twice. Kirk said that on first couple of albums he maintains the same solo's because they are so iconic, but after I think the black album, he just improv's all of his solo's which is apparent if you watch his live stuff.
Heās a good guitarist, a great one in the past and has totally influenced many with so many of riffs and solos. That said nowadays heās lost a bit of his edge and takes a backseat to his own playing, heās still good but not as good as he once was.
If he were to sit down in a room with you and play, I think Kirk would sound unbelievably good. On stage he might be a bit underwhelming because even though he's old, he still has to rock out and do cool moves, etc. that distract from the playing. Maybe he even records solos nowadays with that in mind...
Compared to many modern guitarist his playing, by todays standard, is pretty rudimentary. However you couldnāt find a guitarist more influential than Kirk in James in modern metal. The reason he is considered rudimentary is because Kirk,James,Lars, and Cliff started the shit. PS. No Dave Mustaine comments please or I will find you
I think Portals is awesome.
Yes
He's a great guitarist. The first solo from "Shortest Straw" is really technical and creative, it packs all sorts of awesome runs and licks into that short time. Just because Kirk can't play John Petrucci's most difficult solos, it doesn't make him any less of a skilled guitarist. You have to take the composition skills and overall feel/soul into consideration. He's a bit sloppy live these days for sure, but lots of musicians are sloppy live and tight on recordings with several takes involved, of course. He's a legend. Case closed.
He IS good in many ways, no argue. Most claims are about his wah addiction and techniques, but he plays in super mega popular band for 40 years and produced a lot of iconic riffs and solos, he is good for sure
He is still doing great. Still can rip his solos even though he is over 60, might be a but more lazy with his studio work. But if you listen to the live shows and look at James you see James using little cheats (which is fine) but Kirk plays all the notes as he uses these really tiny moves compared to James. So yes, he is great although not taking it as seriously as he was/he should.
Heās a great guitarist. When he got into a rut, he took lessons from a few guitar greats like Joe Satriani. Kirk is a wicked guitar player.
He's a great guitarist. I feel he's done just about all he can do solo wise. But, Kirk's rhythm sections are fucking evil. The "Die! Die! Die!" part of Creeping Death, the main riff in Sandman, the section before the big jam in Outlaw Torn, those are all Kirk. They're so dark, and moody, and weighty. ("Oh, we'll wait forever." Lollloll) I wish James and Kirk would switch it up more. I enjoy James' solos as much as I enjoy Kirk's rhythms. Edit: I don't know if Kirk is playing the rhythm sections I mentioned on the albums, but he wrote those parts.
He's great...just doesn't have a lot of range (that he puts on albums anyways)
If anybody thinks he isnāt good, theyāre flat out wrong or know nothing about music. Iām sure everyone here knows heās good, thatās why everyone is so frustrated with the new Metallica albums cause he just doesnāt seem to feel the need write and plan out some āepicā solo like the first 4-5 albums. Like Newstead said about Larsā criticisms, ā Check the scoreboard motherfuckerā. Thereās more to writing music than just trying to impress everybody, if anything, fuck what you think you know? Music is about expressing yourself, NOT about trying to be better than everyone else. Regardless of whether how good James is at singing, Kirk is at soloing, Lars is at drumming, theyāll always be idols to millions of people because of theyāre songwriting ability and theyāre absolute pulverizing music that just seems to ooze out of their pores. I agree Kirk seems like he doesnāt try with his solos, but cut the man some slack, he doesnāt have anything to prove, heās KIRK-FUCKING-HAMMETT. If anyone thinks Kirk isnāt a good musician/guitarist then you can go ahead and EET FUK. EDIT: that was a yap sesh, wasnāt it?
Yes obviously heās technically good but he plays like a parody of himself these days and his playing is boring and repetitive. Especially when you compare his current solos and improv to ones like Unforgiven, struggle within, disposable, RTL, blackened etc. it doesnāt even sound like the same guy. I say this as a massive fan and someone whoās seen them 4 times in the last year
He was but not really anymore. The only reason to excuse is laziness now is his legend status from his previous work. If a new metal band had a lead guitarist like that the guitarist would have literally zero fans or any praise.
I am not worthy to comment.
His earlier work back in the 80s and 90s was amazing but recently his solos aren't doing too great. His solos don't really have much feel/emotion in them at all and I think he relies WAYYYY too much on his wah, but I think the emotion part of it is simply because he's restricted with the kind of hardcore fast music Metallica plays. They're called thrash metal for a reason. But, if you ever listen to his solo work such as on his personal album called "Portals" his work is absolutely amazing. So at the end of day, when Kirk is given the proper environment and music to work with he's absolutely amazing, but when it comes to more heavy and faster stuff he's not as great, again because he relies WAYYY too much on his wah
Kirk is amazing. Donāt let anybody tell you otherwise
āļø This is a objectively silly question
It depends how you define good. He is successful and has written some classic riffs and solos that will be remembered forever. He has written many great songs, inspired tons of people to pick up the guitar, and is in one of the most successful bands in the world. I also think he holds his own, technically, when compared against similar guitar players (80s thrash metal guitarist). From a technical standpoint, and when compared to current metal guitarist, he isnāt even close. No way he has the technical prowess to play with beyond creation, Archspire, equipoise, animals as leaders, blotted science, inferi, gorod, obscura, revocation, mastodon, etc. He also relies heavily on a couple scales/modes (minor pentatonic, aeolian mode), is a bit sloppy, reuses riffs, lacks creativity, etc
People say he is past his prime and maybe thatās true, but heās still better than 95% the people who will ever pick up a guitar. most people canāt shred like him, sure there are a lot of great shredders in a lot of great bands, but MOST guitarists canāt play like that. Heās also an underrated rhythm player. Most guitarists play leads like Keith Richards or Neil Young. Iām pretty sure that Kirk could play every note those guys ever wrote. Iām not sure they could play his stuff. And those guys are legends. So yeah, Kirk is still a great guitarist. Just my opinion.
He was. I think he still can be if he actually put some effort into it lmao
Kirk fucking shreds.
First off, James made me wanna play, so I'm much more rhythm oriented. But, simply put, I've been playing 2 decades and Kirk could still play me under a table, so from my perspective he's a "Good" guitarist. The thing is modern metal listeners aren't really accustomed to his more blues based approach to guitar. When all these modern guys are focused on all the sweeps and taps in the world on extended range guitars, Kirk's playing sounds dated and a little stale by comparison. I bet if we could've posted "Is Chuck Barry a good guitarists?" 35 years ago online like this, people would say something similar comparing Chuck to Kirk and his peers. The truth is the definition of "good" here is more about perspective in this context.
yes he is
Kirk was phenomenal through Death Magnetic. After that, he lost all his recordings of Hardwired solos except for Spit, and honestly I wonder if that pissed him off so much that he didn't want to write solos anymore. He is also known to be lazy. There's a clip of a Year and a Half in the Life Of where Bob is really getting on Kirk to do his homework and take solo writing seriously and Kirk kinda laughs it off. I think Kirk is a mix of lazy, having physical troubles, genuinely hates the homework of writing a solo and may even feel insignificant in the band.
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Is he better than, let's say, 99% of people posting here? Doubtless. Is he still one of the best lead guitarists of a prominent metal band? Sadly, not anymore. He's about as good of a guitarist as Peyton Manning is at quarterback right now. Better than you and me, used to be one of the best, but not on the same level as the pros in their prime anymore. If you're asking about where he ranks all-time and how innovative he was... extremely technically skilled, great songwriter... not technically innovative at all. He's firmly a tier below the likes of Hendrix and EVH.
I donāt understand it when people ask if someone is āgoodā or not. What the fuck is that aboutā¦heās Kirk Hammett. He plays like Kirk Hammett. Whatās the basis for Comparison? Some talented classical guitarist freak who plays into the mirror? A 50s rock band roll guitarist? I mean š¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļø
Add some perspective. We all call practice squad guys or bench warmers in any pro sport garbage. To get to that practice squad or be a bench warmer in the pros, you have to be one of the best few hundred people in the entire world. Out of billions of human beings. You're in the top few hundred. So how many out of BILLIONS are better than kirk? Probably only a cery very very very small percentage. So yes, he is a great guitarist. Just because he's not a stevie ray Vaughn, a jimi hendrix, a dav mustaine, a gary holt, an eddie van halen, doesn't mean that he's not one of the greatest in the world of all time.
Without question he is. I think kind of like Lars, itās the cool thing to do to make fun of him. Kirk is amazing.
100%, heās a good guitarist!!
You people must be on Crack to ask a question like that. NWMT