Kirk’s response to criticism

DrewJD82

DrewJD82

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ultimateclassicrock.com

Kirk Hammett Laughs Off Criticism of His Guitar Solos

Kirk Hammett laughed off criticism of his 'Lux Æterna' guitar solo in April 2023.
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This is a copy and paste of my reply on another forum discussing this, well….more using it as another avenue to sh*t on Kirk/Metallica-

There’s no end of criticism for these guys.

Seems a lot of the world is heavily caught up in policing what they believe others should or shouldn’t be doing, in this context, ‘Kirk should be this kind of player”, “He should play differently”, “He should care more”…..it’s his life, he’s free to do what he pleases with it, dude ain’t hurtin’ a single person by doing what he does, quite the opposite really. And if your knee jerk response is “He hurts me with his solos” well…who’s the bigger bitch in that case? The guy playing the solo for millions or the guy “offended” over a fucking guitar solo in a song they most likely don’t like anyway.

I dig a ton of Metallica, but I don’t listen to half their output because it doesn’t do it for me. Can’t say I give it any more thought than that. The expectations and imposing of will on musicians/artists is just weird as fuck to me. I’d be curious what the reactions of the haters would be to have their own group of backseat drivers giving them shit for, literally, everything they do. Your band goes to play a show and immediately after a bunch of guitarists you don’t know come up and tell you how much you sucked, why it sucked and how you should have done it differently, completely ignoring the fact that they’re not in your band, didn’t write the songs and have no clue what’s going on in your life that led to the musical decisions you made.

I’d LOVE to see that as a reality show; producers go on the internet and pick some random haters from various social media platforms, film them doing their thing then introduce a bunch of strangers who just tear it apart and tell them how they should do it differently to see how long it is before the person snaps and tells everyone to fuck off.
 
Tough spot to be in at this point. I am a (sometimes) idiotically opinionated person so I get the struggle in both directions :rofl

On the other side of that; social media has given us a place for commentary 24x7. Also guilty as charged in that regard. Hammett has the unfortunate task of living up to his band's past self. An almost insurmountable challenge. This reaction seems genuine and is about all he can probably do.
 
JiveTurkey said:
Tough spot to be in at this point. I am a (sometimes) idiotically opinionated person so I get the struggle in both directions :rofl

On the other side of that; social media has given us a place for commentary 24x7. Also guilty as charged in that regard. Hammett has the unfortunate task of living up to his band's past self. An almost insurmountable challenge. This reaction seems genuine and is about all he can probably do.
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Kind of off topic, but I was thinking the other day how I remember the internet not being such a critical place and how that changed, then it dawned on me; duh, everyone got cell phones and now has access to the internet at all times. Previous to that, you had have a computer, an internet connection and the desire to sit behind it seeking out the stuff you were interested in (or not, for those who really like being miserable) Now anyone can just open up an app and start bitching away.

Damn you, cell phones….constantly in my line of sight at concerts and allowing everyone having a bad day to shit all over the world freely!
 
I'm also of the camp that didn't prefer Metallica's stuff after AJFA, but am adult enough to have learned that bands change as time goes on. Most of it comes down to jealousy, imho. If you don't like something, are jealous or generally have nothing good to say it's always best to just stfu and keep your crap to yourself. That's my way at least.

Now if you want to talk about Kirk's fingernail polish, we can gang up on him for that :stirthepot, but I don't generally feel the need to criticize how anyone else chooses to play guitar. That dude has played more cool shit than 90% of other guitarists - whether it's "your style" or not. He's been making bank for 4 decades and laughing the whole way there.
 
Warmart said:
I'm also of the camp that didn't prefer Metallica's stuff after AJFA, but am adult enough to have learned that bands change as time goes on. Most of it comes down to jealousy, imho. If you don't like something, are jealous or generally have nothing good to say it's always best to just stfu and keep your crap to yourself. That's my way at least.

Now if you want to talk about Kirk's fingernail polish, we can gang up on him for that :stirthepot, but I don't generally feel the need to criticize how anyone else chooses to play guitar. That dude has played more cool s**t than 90% of other guitarists - whether it's "your style" or not. He's been making bank for 4 decades and laughing the whole way there.
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I wear STUPID stage attire. Black fingernails on a guitar player is an immediate NOPE for me :whistle :rofl
 
Some people make music. Some people complain about it.


tomorrow-annie.gif
 
Also, for clarification’s sake; I’m not saying no one can critique someone and made this example recently when asked “Do I need to be a chef to say the food tastes bad?”

Of course not. What I’m talking about is the assumptions and imposing will on people;, there’s a difference between “I just didn’t like this food” and “The Chef sucks, they clearly have no passion for their work, they need to go to cooking school. This dish should have had more salt and less basil”

But what if that dish tastes EXACTLY how that Chef wanted it to and it just doesn’t align with your taste buds? How does one know the Chef has no passion for his work? How does one feel right determining what ingredients “should” be in a dish someone else put their care into and actually did the work?

The Metallica criticism (for ALL of them really) inevitably comes along with “They don’t have the passion anymore, they’re just doing it for the money” “Kirk needs to put some effort into his soloing”, “Lars needs to play to a click”, “James needs to actually give a shit about what he’s writing again”

No one but those guys know how much passion they have for doing what they do. And maybe their songs turn out EXACTLY how they wanted them to turn out and they all LOVE Kirk’s solos. I just find the assumptions and imposed will, “They need….” thing really odd. I’m absolutely projecting here because the biggest thing that grinds my gears is when I finish a song and someone tells me “You should have….”

The kind of hubris involved in believing that your opinion holds more weight than the opinion of others who actually did the work is astounding to me.
 
I've certainly joked about his wah use before. There's always easy jokes to be had, but I have nothing against those guys. As long as they're having fun and doing what they love it doesn't matter to me if they chose to play nursery rhymes.
 
FuzzyAce said:
I've certainly joked about his wah use before. There's always easy jokes to be had, but I have nothing against those guys. As long as they're having fun and doing what they love it doesn't matter to me if they chose to play nursery rhymes.
Click to expand...

Hell, Korn did nursery rhymes and it worked out GREAT for them!

 
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