Follow us on Google Discover The world of rock music is a tough place to be. You can be one of the greatest-selling artists of a genre and still find yourself being berated and belittled at every turn. It’s time that the metal community cut Kirk Hammett a little bit of a break. Although he may have his usual bag of tricks that usually get old after one or two songs, he has also had a hand in making some of the greatest metal songs in history even more badass with his bluesy licks and his borderline obsessive relationship with the wah pedal. Before he had even stepped on that pedal and played the metal blues, Hammett was drawn to the sounds of UFO before anyone else. Before Metallica, there was the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The thrash scene may have been brewing out of California, but if it weren’t for bands like Diamond Head and Saxon, chances are that Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield would have never gotten together to jam in the first place. When Hammett was first putting together his first melodies, he remembered the turning point came when he heard UFO, telling Gibson , “Then I heard UFO. It had to be 1979, and all of a sudden, I heard something that I was looking for.” The band represented a shift in attitude that felt very different to the works in America. Perhaps it was Britain’s love of punk, and their adoption of the fast riffs that came with it, but UFO performed at a higher revolution than most metal bands at the time, and it gave Hammett a spark. “It was something heavier and a little bit more extreme, more aggressive than anything that was coming out of America,” explained Hammett. “Then I discovered a whole slew of other bands that were coming out of Europe”. Kirk Hammett wailing for his guitar. (Credit: Rodrigues/Andres) Considering most rock radio was playing nothing but Pink Floyd and Aerosmith at the time, hearing albums like Force It or Lights Out was probably a complete shock to a young kid at the time. There had been loud guitars in rock before, but the tone Michael Schenker got out of his Flying V guitar was far more aggressive than anything else out at the time. Even though UFO had their fair share of great songs at the time, they never seemed to get the same recognition as their peers. It may have been the fact that they didn’t have the traditional hooks of their counterparts, or maybe it’s because another European rock band, Scorpions, ended up crossing over and taking most of the credit. That never diminished how Hammett felt about the band as the years passed. Compared to the licks that Hetfield came up with for the band, Hammett’s riffs were a natural extension of what Schenker had been doing, almost as if a guitarist like Gary Moore decided to front a metal band instead of a blues outfit. For all of the praise that Metallica put on UFO’s name, they were left conspicuously absent from their massive covers album Garage Inc , all while covering half of Diamond Head’s debut album. If Hammett couldn’t have his way in terms of artists in the studio, he was going to get them on the live stage. Looking back on some of his finest moments during Metallica shows, Hammett would throw in a couple of UFO lines into his songs. Hammett would probably not be here if not for a band like UFO, but if the rest of the world didn’t love them as much as he did, he would do his part to bring as much exposure to them as he could. Related Topics Source: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/one-band-that-made-kirk-hammett-love-heavy-metal/