Metallica are set to kick off the next leg of their M72 World Tour next month, and guitarist Kirk Hammett has revealed that he already has 767 new riffs ready to go for the legendary metal band's next album.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the 62-year-old guitarist says he's amassed quite a collection of riffs he plans to use on the follow-up to the band's 2023 album, 72 Seasons.
“I have 767 new [riffs] for the next album,” Hammett said. "It is such a nightmare going through this stuff, too. And I’m the one responsible for all of it and I can’t do it."
While that sounds promising, he added that the band are in no position to head into the studio soon.
"I don’t foresee us starting the next album for at least another year because we’re still finishing the 72 Seasons tour," he continued. "Once we fully finish this and go to all the outlying places like Asia and Australia and New Zealand, I think we’re gonna take a little bit of a break, not too much of one, and then we’re gonna get right back into it.”
Before we see a new Metallica album, however, we might see a solo debut album from Hammett, which follows up 2022's debut EP, Portals. To date, no member of Metallica has released a solo album.
“I’m just actively getting ideas together for my [first] solo album,” he told Rolling Stone. “I guess the best way to describe it is it’s gonna be a fusion of all sorts of styles…. All of a sudden I’m writing classical progressions, and all of a sudden I’m writing more heavy stuff and all of a sudden I’m writing like a funk thing…. There will be vocals because the songs that I wrote scream for vocals this time around. So I’m like, okay, who’s gonna be doing the vocals? I don’t know. I hope I’m not—I already have too much to do on stage."
"I have an instrumental piece that to me sounds like it’s 2000 years old called ‘The Mysterion,'" he added. "It’s based on all this stuff that I’ve been reading, the ancient Greek texts, and it’s amazing to me because I wouldn’t have had this instrumental if I didn’t start reading these ancient texts.”
Hammett recently announced he will be releasing a new coffee table book compiling his impressive guitar collection titled The Collection: Kirk Hammett. Published by Gibson, the 400-page book will feature interviews with the guitar god who will share stories behind the instruments he’s used throughout his career.
"I’ve worked diligently on this curated collection of vintage and modern guitars for the book," Hammett explained in a statement. "I feel the book captures the rich history and artistry behind each of these unique and rare instruments. Every picture tells a story and thanks to Ross Halfin and his exceptional photography, every picture in this book is worth a million words!”
For more about Metallica and their ascent to becoming the biggest metal band of all time, check out a new episode of iHeartRadio Canada's Encore podcast, where we detail the story behind one of the band's biggest songs, "Nothing Else Matters."