Death Magnetic gives Metallica a new lease on life

During thrash's heyday, which Hammett describes as a "zeitgeist," he admits that he actively avoided the music of the band's peers — highly creative bands such as Anthrax, Voivod, Celtic Frost and Sepultura, all of whom brought a wealth of new ideas to the thrash palette and expanded conventional notions of what could be done within the limitations of the form.

"They were reaching for some pretty cool ranges of expression," Hammett allows. "And for that reason, I really tried not to listen to them too much." In contrast — and perhaps this is another indication of Metallica's ongoing evolution — Hammett doesn't appear to be as threatened by the metal being made today. "I think metal these days is pretty good," he enthuses. "The level of quality is really up there. I like that, because I feel challenged."

Hey, Metallica, that's some kind of comeback.

Details

Metallica, with Down and the Sword, 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 4, Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle, $59.50-$79.50, 303-830-8497.

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• Metallica
• Kirk Hammett
• Rick Rubin
• James Hetfield
• Heavy Metal

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Hammett's outlook has also changed with regard to his role in Metallica. Early on, he mostly played only leads while frontman James Hetfield handled all the rhythm. "The whole reason for that in the beginning was that James had such a tight style of rhythm playing," he explains. "There are merits to doing it both ways. When you have one guy, it's going to be like a plank, almost like different grains of wood compressed into one thing. But when you have two separate guys, the timing will be slightly off. What that does is it actually makes it sound big."

These days, there's more room for Hammett to get his ideas across.

"I've always been more of a team player," he explains. "A lot of times, if Lars and James had butting opinions, the last thing you needed was a third person in there. It would just add to the inertia of the situation. As far as music is concerned, I wrote parts. All the parts that we ever write have bits and pieces from everybody, and I was totally fine as long as they used my bits and pieces of music.

"But we started writing together as a band with St. Anger, and I would have to say that now the dynamic between James and Lars and myself is a lot different, a lot more even as far as the quality of the ideas that are being thrown out there. And now that we have Rob [Trujillo, bassist] in the band, who has the same approach and quality of musical ideas, I definitely am thinking that four heads are better than two."