Kirk Hammett Has 600 Song Ideas for Next Metallica Album

Any time the phrases “Kirk Hammett” and “song ideas” are in the same sentence, we feel obliged to hark back to the months and years leading into the recording of Metallica’s last album, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, when Hammett infamously lost his cell phone with hundreds of ideas recorded on it. He’s been publicly suffering the psychological effects of that ever since, and thanks to endeavoring interviewers will continue to pay his therapist to listen to him talk about it for years to come.

But it ain’t happening again: Hammett’s been studiously at work on compiling ideas for the next Metallica album for some time already — don’t worry, he’s been backing everything up this time — and now says he’s got a whopping 600 song ideas floating around! During a conversation with Uproxx, he explained:

“We have weekly check-ins, and the dialogue has been steered towards what we’re going to be doing in the immediate future. And I’ve been using this time to go through all my musical ideas that I’ve come up with.”

“In the last three or four years, it’s over 600 ideas, it’s taken me a couple of months to go through it all. But they’ve been sent into the big musical idea bank, and we’re starting to talk about going through all that stuff, and exchanging ideas, and just starting to get the ball rolling towards creating some new material.

“There’s a lot we can do remotely, but I really think that we all need to be together in the same room, to really create some really, really, really great songs and music. The magic really happens when we’re all in the same room, breathing the same air, even though that can be deadly.”

Kirk shouldn’t get his hopes up too much; by his own admission, James and Lars shoot down his song ideas “all the time.” But he’s certainly got a better shot this time than last, and with 600 friggin’ riffs it’s a near certainty some will make the cut.

I’d bet on fans hearing those some time in 2022, although ya never know… maybe the band hustles (by Metallica standards) and finishes up this record in time for a 2021 release.

Metallica have been working on new song ideas remotely, with James Hetfield saying he’s also been writing a whole lot. The band recently hosted a pre-recorded drive-in concert at hundreds of outdoor movie theaters and just released a recording of last year’s S&M2 concert.