Metallica have 11 studio albums to their name (including the still-unreleased 72 Seasons), and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett has revealed which one is his absolute favorite. Interestingly, the thrash pioneer didn't go with the band's most commercially successful record ("Black Album") or their most recent creation, which is an answer so many artists give when they're pressed to identify their proudest achievement.
No, instead Hammett picked an album that many Metallica fans would also select as their No. 1 highlight — 1986's Master of Puppets.
In a new interview with the magazine Rock Candy, Hammett looked back on Metallica's third album and considered the ways in which the music holds up over three decades after it was released.
"We weren't trying to make an album that 35 or so years on people would put on and think still sounded great," Hammett said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. "We didn't set out to do anything, really. We were just trying to make the best album we possibly could and that's what came out."
"From a technical viewpoint, when I listen to the album I'm really surprised at how good it sounds so long after the fact," he continued. "The recording of the album, the recording of the songs, the production … it all holds up still."
"A lot of the music from that time now sounds samey and similar," Hammett added. "But there's really nothing on Master Of Puppets that dates it to any particular period — sound-wise, production-wise, recording-wise. Master Of Puppets is my favorite of all the albums we've ever done."
