After releasing the instrumental EP Portals in 2022, Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett has told Rolling Stone that his upcoming solo album is in development and will likely include vocals, a departure from his previous solo work.
“I’m just actively getting ideas together for my [first] solo album,” Hammett said. “I guess the best way to describe it is it’s gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles…. All of a sudden I’m writing classical progressions, and all of a sudden I’m writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I’m writing like a funk thing…. There will be vocals because the songs that I wrote scream for vocals this time around.
He continued: “So I’m like, okay, who’s gonna be doing the vocals? I don’t know. I hope I’m not—I already have too much to do on stage… I have an instrumental piece that to me sounds like it’s 2000 years old called ‘The Mysterion.’ It’s based on all this stuff that I’ve been reading, the ancient Greek texts, and it’s amazing to me because I wouldn’t have had this instrumental if I didn’t start reading these ancient texts.”
In the same interview, Kirk also discussed his ongoing process of collecting ideas for Metallica’s next album, following 72 Seasons.
“I have 767 [riffs] new ones for the next album,” he said. “It is such a nightmare going through this stuff, too. And I’m the one responsible for all of it and I can’t do it…. I don’t foresee us starting the next album for at least another year because we’re still finishing the tour. Once we fully finish this and go to all the outlying places like Asia and Australia and New Zealand, I think we’re gonna take a little bit of a break, not too much of one, and then we’re gonna get right back into it.”
Hammett‘s debut EP, Portals, was released in April 2022 through Blackened Recordings. It comprises four instrumental tracks, described in the release as “a collection of gateways to myriad musical and psychic destinations.
