Metallica‘s Kirk Hammett has announced details of his debut solo EP, ‘Portals’.
The guitarist will release the four-song instrumental EP on April 23 via Blackened Recordings across digital platforms, CD and as a Record Store Day Exclusive Ocean Blue Vinyl EP.
‘Portals’ was produced by Hammett and includes songs that were co-written with California conductor Edwin Outwater, who also contributed keyboards and led the orchestral players from the LA Philharmonic on ‘Portals’. Hammett previously collaborated with Outwater on Metallica’s ‘S&M2’ shows in 2019.
Drummers Jon Theodore and Abraham Laboriel, bassist Greg Fidelman, arranger Blake Neely and Bob Rock have also contributed to ‘Portals’ – the artwork and tracklist for which you can see below.
1. ‘Maiden And The Monster’
2. ‘The Jinn’
3. ‘High Plains Drifter’
4. ‘The Incantation’
‘Portals’ was recorded in multiple locations ranging from Los Angeles to Paris to Oahu, and is described as being “both the result of musical and metaphysical journeys; an invitation to inner worlds accessible only by music and the psyche it fuels”.
“This music was created with what I describe as an audio-cinematic approach,” Hammett said in a statement about his record. “They’re soundtracks to the movies in your mind.”
Back in October, Hammett spoke about how he wanted “to write the next ‘Smoke On The Water'” when he started writing Metallica’s 1991 hit ‘Enter Sandman’.
“I sat down and I said to myself, as I always do, ‘I want to write the next ‘Smoke on the Water’,'” he told Guitar World. “And I just started messing around. I got the swing kind of feel going, and then I was thinking of Soundgarden and how they were using dropped tunings.
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