Photo: Redferns
Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett's announcement of a solo EP earlier this year set off alarm bells among the band's fanbase.
Fans were curious about Hammett's solo music, of course, but as anyone who white-knuckled their way through Metallica's unflinching Some Kind of Monster documentary knows, side projects had never before been welcome in the Metallicaverse.
As the documentary chronicles, bassist Jason Newsted left Metallica in 2001 largely because he wanted to pursue his alt-rock side project, Echobrain. The other members of Metallica were uneasy with Newsted's plans, but he was undeterred.
Looking back at the Echobrain saga in an interview with Metal Hammer, Newsted explained that it was at least the second time he'd gone down the side project road with Metallica. He knew going into Echobrain that he might be at a breaking point.
"This was the very origins," Newsted explains. "I had just established the Chophouse in '92, and by '94 we had all the gear. Devin [Townsend] came down at the age of about 22 and was an absolute f---ing maniac...Dude, an hour-and-a-half of sleep a day for a whole week! And every time he would pick up a guitar, you get, 'Widdle widdle widdle' and you're like, 'Dude, where in the hell did that come from?! Now play it backwards!'"
The pair made a six-track record of low-stakes, chaotic, stream-of-consciousness music that was more an experiment for the new studio than a real collection of songs. Newsted and Townsend called the project IR8 and shared the demos with some friends.
No matter the goals of IR8, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were not pleased.
"The guys got wind of it, and Lars said, 'You gotta come up to the house,'" Newsted recalled. "I didn't really know what it was for, so I take my bass and go up there: 'What's up, guys?'
"'Dude, you know you're in Metallica now, don't you? You can't just be making music and sending out tapes to whatever f---er with whichever f---er. You do understand that, right?'
'Oh!'
"I didn't realize at all! I didn't know about the politics; I was just sharing some metal with my friends! I pretty much broke down on that day in front of Lars and James. I was like, 'I'm sorry, it won't happen again!' And that was the first time."
Newsted's departure from Metallica seven years later prompted a period of deep reflection amongst his former bandmates, as seen in Some Kind of Monster. The band committed to do better by Newsted's successor Robert Trujillo.
A few years later, in 2003, Ulrich admitted that Metallica had "overlooked" Newsted during his time in the band and wrongly stifled his "creative needs." Ulrich lamented that the "perfect Metallica in Jason's mind" was the one the band established after the bassist walked away.
More than 20 years since Newsted left Metallica to work on Echobrain, Hammett told Rolling Stone he was still "pretty shocked" Hetfield and Ulrich gave their blessing for him to move ahead with his solo work.
"It was amazing because our band has not had a lot of great progress with band members going solo, as everyone knows," the guitarist said. "But all that went down almost 20 years ago, and we’re such different people now. We’re all just older, wiser, and more mature.”
He continued, explaining where the band erred when it came to Newsted.
“Morally and creatively, it’s wrong to deny someone the opportunities to express themselves and create,” Hammett said. “I think we’re a little bit more aware of our own mortality and how much more time we [may] have as functioning artists… there are other things that are more important to consider, like the longevity of the group, the mental health of the group, the creative energy of the group.”
Hammett's cinematic Portals EP arrived last Friday.
Metallica is on tour now, with dates announced through August. Get all the tour dates here.