Getting into a band like Metallica was never going to be easy. Throughout their time together, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich always had a certain standard for how precise everything should sound, and no amount of partying would get in the way of their music sounding like a cerated razorblade to the eardrum. While Kirk Hammett was not in the trenches with the group when they started, the song ‘Seek and Destroy’ was what brought him into the group properly.
Because if everything had stayed the same, Metallica would have kept trucking with Dave Mustaine in the band. Mustaine was every bit the guitar hero that they needed, and he even managed to take up the frontman role onstage alongside Hetfield, playing up the snarling side of his personality.
When the group finally got a record deal, though, Mustaine started to unravel a little bit. He had always had a drinking problem, but something started happening on the way out to New York City, where he started to become a different person when he drank.
Despite making the trek together, Lars Ulrich said it was time for him to go, telling Vh1, “I mean, we drank a lot. God, did we drink a lot. But Dave had a certain side to him when he drank that was not positive. I think especially Cliff [Burton] was convinced that [Mustaine] was out of his fucking mind.”
At the same time, this is a band whose affectionate name amongst the fanbase was ‘Alcoholica’, so the fact that they were kicking someone out for drinking too much was more than a little ironic. The morning that Mustaine was sent packing, Hammett got the call to become the new guitar player of Metallica. He had already been making waves in Exodus, but Hammett had the choice either to give up his own group or become part of a musical rocketship.
While he was still jet-lagged when he got to the rehearsal room, Hammett knew that he was going to fit right in amongst everyone, saying, “When I arrived, it was about seven o’clock in the evening, and these guys were just getting up. I thought, ‘Wow, I like these guys.’” Once they plugged in to play with him, Hammett was an absolute animal, putting a bluesy spin on the traditional heavy metal leads.
Ulrich remembered ‘Seek and Destroy’ as the turning point in their decision, recalling, “We played ‘Seek and Destroy’, and about halfway through the song, I remember me and James looking at each other, and we kinda nodded, and we instantly knew it was the right thing.”
While they did use some of the spare riffs that Mustaine had left behind, Hammett gave the band a shot in the arm from a composing standpoint, penning the riffs on classics like ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘Enter Sandman’. As much as he may have left his stamp on the group’s sound, though, Hammett did say that he never got a confirmation that he actually joined the group. Who knows? Maybe one of these days, the guys will call him and officially tell him he got the gig.
