Music
James Hetfield Blames Kirk and Lars for ‘Load’ and ‘Reload’
Metallica‘s James Hetfield has never held back his true feelings, going as far as to rip guitarist Kirk Hammett for “losing” his riff samples at an airport prior to the recording of last year’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, so it’s all about asking him the right questions in an interview in order to strike gold. Here, Hetfield remembers Load and Reload, two garbage albums that he says were the victim of “compromise”.
“It is interesting, because we have created our own mainstream, is what I believe,” he tells Clash Music. “We’ve been extremely honest with ourselves, including the compromising part. There always has to be some kind of compromise – especially when you’ve got four guys in a band. You’ve got two guys that are really driving the thing – Lars [Ulrich] and myself – and when we don’t agree, there has to be a compromise. But, as far as doing something that doesn’t feel right, I’m sure there’s been a few times that it’s happened – the Load and Reload era, for me, was one of those; the way that was looking, I wasn’t 100% on with it, but I would say that that was a compromise.
He continued: “I said, ‘I’m going with Lars’ and Kirk’s vision on this. You guys are extremely passionate about this, so I’ll jump on board, because if the four of us are into it, it’s going to be better.’ So I did my best with it, and it didn’t pan out as good as I was hoping, but, again, there’s no regrets, because at the time it felt like the right thing to do. So, even thinking that I need to compromise a little bit for the integrity of the band to go forward, I’d do that.”
It’s easy to point fingers, but Hetfield proved something fierce with Metallica’s album Hardwired, which Hammett carries not a single writing credit on. It is, in this writer’s opinion, the best since the self-titled release in 1991.
It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.
Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.
Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.
“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.
“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”
You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…
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