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The Latest Breaking News from Kirk Hammett

James Hetfield is the undisputed master of metal rhythm guitar – and his downpicking will seriously test your abilities

Get to grips with the Metallica frontman’s punishing palm-muting and chugging rhythms

Guitar World

“It was funny when I first met James Hetfield. I was like, ‘Thank you for teaching me how to play guitar. You paved the way for me’”: Mastodon's Bill Kelliher on how meeting his guitar heroes pushed him to improve his craft

Mastodon's Bill Kelliher also credits Slayer's Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman for changing his previously nonchalant attitude to warming up before a show

Guitar World

“James really absorbed the dual-harmony thing and took it to heart. He made it his but it was originally Cliff’s”: Kirk Hammett on Joe Satriani’s influence and Metallica’s ’84 masterpiece Ride the Lightning

Master of Puppets gets all the attention, but it was Ride the Lightning that made the metal legends sound heavier, more epic, and musically more audacious

Guitar World

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Watch man play Metallica's Pulling Teeth bass solo while squatting 225lbs. Definitely DO NOT try this at home

Here's something you don't see everyday. A man squatting 225lbs while playing epic Cliff Burton Metallica solo

Metal Hammer

“Us guitar players in the West, we all have the same base vocabulary, the same handful of stereotypical licks. But Mdou’s music, it’s almost free of that stuff”: Mdou Moctar finds a new fan in Metallica’s Kirk Hammett

The Tuareg guitarist’s latest album continues to expand the horizons of contemporary rock

Guitar World

"At first, based on the music and the riff, the band and their management thought it could be the first single… then they heard James’ lyrics": When Metallica and Bob Rock changed tack and gambled with Enter Sandman

Via some riff editing from Lars Ulrich

MusicRadar

“For many wah enthusiasts, Clyde McCoy wahs are considered the ‘Holy Grail’, and Xotic has replicated its tonal recipe”: Xotic XW-2 Wah – Red Limited review

Xotic is only making 1,000 of these, which is a shame, because it is maybe the most beautiful wah pedal you will ever see. But how does it sound?

Guitar World

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“So funny, so personable, so goofy”: Metallica’s Kirk Hammett remembers hitching a ride from David Bowie

Metallica’s guitarist has told the story of how David Bowie came to the rescue when he didn’t have a ride to his hotel

Metal Hammer

The isolated bass track from Metallica’s Orion proves that Cliff Burton was a master of his instrument

Orion without guitars and drums is still a majestic experience. That’s how incredible Cliff Burton was.

Metal Hammer

“We’d play a song in a certain tempo. Three weeks later, it would be twice as fast”: who invented thrash metal? Kirk Hammett has a theory

Kirk Hammett was there at the birth of thrash with his original band Exodus, so he should know more than anyone who invented the genre

Metal Hammer

“It’s like Brian May walked over to his tone booth and just turned it up to 11!” Kirk Hammett names his favorite Queen song – and it’s a seriously deep cut

Metallica may have covered Stone Cold Crazy, but that’s not Hammett’s no. 1…

Guitar World

“When somebody buys my signature Duesenberg in a store, they're buying exactly what I play on stage”: Dave Baksh of Sum 41 interview

Dave Baksh lifts the lid on the gear used to record Sum 41’s last-ever album and details the benefits of a digital rig and recording remotely

MusicRadar

“That was it for me, a rock god lead guitarist playing on it”: how Metallica’s Kirk Hammett helped a dance classic to come full circle

The Metallica man collaborated with techno duo Orbital for a song on the soundtrack to Spawn

Louder

"With effortless playability and the credentials to absolutely nail those iconic Peter Green, Gary Moore and Kirk Hammett tones": Epiphone Kirk Hammett "Greeny" 1959 Les Paul Standard review

The world's most famous Les Paul finally gets the Epiphone treatment – but is it worth it?

MusicRadar

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Metal Hammer

Every Metallica instrumental ranked from worst to best

From (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth to Suicide & Redemption, we’ve rearranged the six Metallica instrumental tracks in reverse-order of excellence

Guitar World

“Freddie was a good riffmeister! He was a devotee of Jimi Hendrix. People think he was just concerned with the lighter stuff but it’s not true. He did enjoy the heavy stuff”: Brian May reveals the inside stories behind 13 classic Queen tracks

In a world-exclusive interview, Brian May takes you behind the scenes of the making of 13 iconic Queen cuts, and reveals what inspired his magical guitar playing in Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, Don’t Stop Me Now and many more

MusicRadar

“This is one of the most requested models in Epiphone’s history”: Foo Fighters fans rejoice – the Dave Grohl DG-335 is finally here and it’s got Gibson USA pickups

Pelham Blue with bound diamond soundholes and the Trini Lopez headstock... The colour and the shape of this Epiphone x Gibson Custom Shop collaboration looks the part

Metal Hammer

“It was a real awkward time”: The story of the abandoned Metallica album

In 2001, Metallica hired an old army barracks in California to try and record album eight. The songs were scrapped when James Hetfield entered rehab, but countless fans still want to hear them finished.

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Metal Hammer

“Lääz Rockit were headliners, and the band in the middle was Metallica.” The story of Lääz Rockit: the unsung thrash heroes who changed the future of metal’s biggest band

With a pioneering sound, packed-out San Francisco shows and a kinship with Metallica, Lääz Rockit could have been the fifth part of the Big Four. So why did they call it quits as early as 1992?

The Guardian - UK

‘When they cleared the wreckage, it was all that survived’: 10 of history’s most irreplaceable guitars

As Paul McCartney is reunited with his violin-shaped Hofner bass, we look at equally iconic guitars, from Prince’s phallic symbol to Jimmy Page’s double-necked beast

Metal Hammer

"When you can simplify what it is you want to say it's easier for more people to connect to": How Metallica stripped away the complexity to take their music to the masses

With a little help from astrophysics, Ice-T and Heart, Metallica came up with Enter Sandman, their best-known song and a heavy metal classic

Metal Hammer

"We are here to play. We don't let our friends down": Watch pro-shot 4K footage of the night Joey Jordison saved Metallica when Lars Ulrich went AWOL

Original broadcast footage of For Whom The Bell Tolls, Wherever I May Roam and Enter Sandman from Metallica's historic Download 2004 set has surfaced online

MusicRadar

“We need guitar music that makes those people feel something”: Marty Friedman wishes “slow and painful death” upon the traditional guitar solo and has some ideas on what should replace it

The former Megadeth lead guitarist is the latest high-profile player to declare war on solos, arguing eight bars of “stupid licks” are not moving the audience anymore

Guitar World

“What Ace Frehley and Joe Perry do isn’t precise, there’s some sloppiness, but they know how to create a wide sound... it’s unlike anyone else”: Low-end veteran Chris Wyse on his Metallica audition and his love of the Gibson Ripper L-9 and Tech 21 SansAmp

With the ability to create seemingly unending deep pockets, Wyse has landed gigs with Ozzy Osbourne, Ace Frehley, Tal Bachman, The Cult, and, most recently, the Hollywood Vampires

Guitar World

“Artfully aged by the Murphy Lab to match the look and feel of Kirk’s original”: Gibson’s Custom Shop takes on Kirk Hammett’s mod-heavy, “blacked-out” 1989 Les Paul Custom – and it’s safe to say it’s nothing like Greeny...

The Metallica guitar god debuts his latest signature Les Paul – and it’s a little different to his other recent custom shop build...

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