Back from hiatus, Metallica still angry

Back with its first album in eight years, Metallica has returned to its thrash metal roots, making it clear the band hasn't lost its anger.

"Hardwired... to Self-Destruct," which comes out on Nov. 18, is the 10th album by a group determined to preserve its reign as one of the defining acts in heavy metal.

"We're four angry guys," said lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, now 53 with a touch of grey in his long curly hair.
"These songs have been written with a lot of anger, a lot of aggression, with a real sort of vision to do that," the California native told AFP during a visit to Paris.

The first track, "Hardwired," sets the tone for the 12-track album -- uncompromising and ultra-fast with enraged, nihilistic lyrics that recall Metallica's first opus, 1983's "Kill 'Em All."

The title of the latest album is "a statement on the human condition and how we all kind of do things that we know are bad for us but we do it anyway," Hammett said.

"We are hardwired to be a little naughty, a little bad, and on the extreme end of that, some people just self-destruct because they just can't get enough of that bad stuff."

The second song -- "Atlas Rise!" -- recalls "Master of Puppets," the title track of Metallica's 1986 album that was groundbreaking for the musical depth of a heavy metal song.

While not as epic as the earlier music, "Atlas Rise!" runs for more than six minutes, shifting between vocal and instrumental passages and Hammett's celebrated guitar solos, free-flowing and true to form with a wah-wah pedal.

Hammett, who said he first turned to music to release his anger, says he plays so ferociously on the guitar that he breaks more strings than he replaces.

"I always play very, very aggressively...