Kirk Hammett Releases Cinematic Solo Track ‘Excessive Plains Drifter’

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has launched a solo track titled “Excessive Plains Drifter,” the primary style of his upcoming debut solo EP, Portals.

You’ll be able to hearken to the tune beneath.

The cinematic instrumental observe begins with clear guitar arpeggios and brooding orchestral swells earlier than giving method to overdriven chugs, thundering drums and a dramatic string association. Conductor Edwin Outwater, Queens of the Stone Age drummer Jon Theodore and members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic all contributed to the track.

“Excessive Plains Drifter” shares its title with a 1973 Western starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Hammett defined in an announcement that the track “was not meant to be particularly music for that movie, but it surely was as soon as it was written, I instantly thought it conveyed the identical sentiment because the movie, so the piece was christened accordingly. The music for ‘Excessive Plains Drifter’ initially got here from a flamenco piece I had written. It was a two-and-a-half-minute piece, and I actually favored it, but it surely was a type of riffs that will be onerous to combine into Metallica.

“I knew I needed to do one thing with it, though it got here out spontaneously,” Hammett continued. “I had been sitting outdoors messing round with a flamenco acoustic guitar I would just purchased, and it flowed out within the second. I used to be decided it will have a life. It might have its second.”

Hammett will launch the four-song Portals on April 23. It is going to be obtainable digitally, on CD and as an unique Document Retailer Day ocean-blue vinyl version. The guitarist produced the EP and combined it with longtime Metallica producer Bob Rock, who labored with the band from 1991’s Black Album via 2003’s St. Anger.

“This music was created with what I describe as an Audio-Cinematic strategy,” Hammett mentioned in an announcement. “They’re soundtracks to the films in your thoughts.”