Review Summary: Kirk Hammett 'does' Godspeed You! Black Emperor - and it works much better than it had any right to.
'The solo album' and ' the guitar album' are, at this point in musical history, well-established industry tropes, each signifying a fairly well-defined, if somewhat conflicting, set of constructs - the latter evoking an often stale re-treading of a staid, well-trod formula established half a century ago, while the former is usually associated with a desire to branch out and experiment with new ideas or genres. In spite of their diametrically opposed perceptions within the music world, however, it is far from impossible for these two concepts to overlap, as attested by the recording careers of, among others, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai or Buckethead.
The latest example of this axiom comes from the unlikeliest of sources - the guitarist for an unabashedly commercial, increasingly micro-managed and ever-so-slightly stale ensemble, one seen by most metal fans as, at best, an entry-level, casual-fan band and, at worst, the poster child for mainstream selling-out; and yet, what Kirk Hammett (Metallica's frizzy-maned, thin-mustachioed wah-pedal abuser) presents in his debut EP, recorded and released to celebrate Record Store Day 2022, is a clear departure from his main band's sound, towards more layered, progressive, and clearly more creatively satisfying sonic landscapes.
Perhaps wisely, however, the veteran axe-wielder does not show his hand straight away. On the contrary, at first glance, everything about
Portals seems fairly standard and run-of-the-mill for a solo album by a prominent guitarist; only the above-average length of the four tracks contained within (spread over almost exactly twenty-seven minutes, with running times ranging from not quite five minutes to slightly over eight, for an average length of just under seven minutes) may raise an eyebrow on first instance - and even then, only until one realises Metallica were always known for writing long songs. Opener
Maiden and The Monster – a heavily guitar-centric track, which builds from an atmospheric, semi-acoustic first half to the kind of stomping mid-tempo instrumental Metallica were known for writing in their street-cred, genre-defining days – does little to dispel the feeling of deja-vu and, while by no means a bad introduction to the EP, ranks as (paradoxically) the least interesting of these four tracks.
It is, therefore, not until the opener has given way to second track
The Djinn that Hammett begins to reveal the ace up his sleeve, as the chugging riffage and virtuoso noodling become progressively intermingled with heavily orchestral, atmospheric elements, which lend the whole a cinematic ambiance not unlike that of cowboy movies produced in Southern Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s (the so-called
spaghetti westerns). The rest of
Portals is spent exploring and perfecting this formula, which reaches its peak in bombastic closer
The Incantation, which, like
The Djinn before it, smoothly transitions from peak-period Metallica instrumental to electrified Enio Morricone pastiche, and back again. Connecting quasi-interlude
High Plains Drifter, on the other hand, leans heavily towards the orchestral side, being, for all intents and purposes, a piece of film score – albeit for a film which has yet to be created.
In this regard,
Portals shares more than a few conceptual and thematic (if not quite stylistic) similarities with another highly cinematic and ambiance-heavy album – Godspeed You! Black Emperor's seminal, industry-shaking 1996 debut
F# A# ∞; in fact, in a way, the music in this EP can almost be seen as a more streamlined, conventional, rock-centric take on the formula the Canadian collective laid down on that revolutionary release – what Hammett himself calls
'an Audio-Cinematic approach', with the explicit aim of creating
'the soundtrack to the movies in [the listener's] mind'. Yes, on this solo EP, Kirk Hammett 'does' Godspeed You! Black Emperor – and while far from the brilliance the Canadians exhibited at their peak, the guitarist's own take on their sort of cinematic, atmospheric sound works significantly better than it had any right to.
To be sure, some of the main flaws attributed to its author are still readily evident (abundant use is made of wah-wah effects, and Metallica's infamously obvious cutting and pasting of sections is employed at several points, with two particularly ugly back-to-back examples occurring about a third of the way into
The Djinn); overall, however, Hammett's passion project asserts itself as a perfectly valid and highly enjoyable curve-ball from a musician usually accused of staying in his artistic comfort zone, and who – at nearly sixty years of age, and as a part of one of the most successful bands in rock and metal History – really had no need to ever leave it. Good thing he did, though, as the result of his efforts could well come to be seen as the best Metallica-related release in almost two and a half decades.
Recommended Tracks
High Plains Drifter
The Incantation
