'Those Solos Wrote Themselves!' - Kirk Hammett Names the Metallica Album With His Best Guitarwork

Say what you will about Metallica’s self-titled fifth studio LP (commonly called The Black Album), but you can’t deny how popular it’s been since it arrived nearly 35 years ago. According to lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, one reason to adore it is because it’s the record that features his best guitarwork.

What Hammett Said

In the latest issue of Metal Hammer, Hammett reflects on his time with the legendary thrash metal quartet, and along the way, he’s asked “what he thinks his finest moment as a player is.” Rather than pick Metallica’s more technical ‘80s material, he singles out 1991’s The Black Album as the cream of the crop when it comes to his greatest performances.

“It’s weird, because my opinion of that changes all the time,” he begins, adding:

I don’t sit around listening to Metallica, so sometimes something comes on and I’m like, “I haven’t heard this in fucking five years! I forgot about that sound.” I don’t look in the rear-view mirror too often. The whole band is like that – we just move on. What’s the next cool thing we can do? It’s just how we are.

Nevertheless, he points out that there is “a period” in which he thinks his playing “was fucking spot on”: during the recording of The Black Album.

“Those solos wrote themselves! Almost all of them worked out instantly,” he exclaims before admitting:

There were only a few things I wasn’t prepared for, and that was “The Unforgiven” solo, which is pretty well documented. And the solo for “My Friend of Misery.” But because the solo of “The Unforgiven” ended up being so spontaneous, that made me want to do them all like that from that point on.

As Metal Hammer explains, Hammett is “referring to the problems he had coming up with a solo [for “The Unforgiven”] that fit the song after producer Bob Rock expressed dissatisfaction with his initial ideas."

Hammett even told Total Guitar in 2021:

It wasn’t happening and then Bob . . . accused me of not doing my homework. I don’t know what he was talking about, because I arrived into the studio with all these ideas, but they just didn’t work! I had to throw them all out. I was bare naked with no idea what to do. Bob told me he would try to tweak the sound for me and when he did that it really helped. They said, “Just play!’ and I was like, “Arrrgh!” I had maybe a minute to put myself into a real mood. I just needed to block everything out and go deep emotionally. We hit record and I didn’t know what the fuck to play but something was going to come out... Something always does. That solo was raw emotion. I had no idea what to do; it all came to me as I played – real improvisation. I was so happy after that, really excited and inspired. I knew I needed to do more of it, and ever since that moment, I’ve worked on being better at improvisation and completing music thoughts that are very much listenable. Forming complete solos naturally, if you know what I mean.
For 'The Black Album,' I came in with 80 percent of the stuff worked out and 20 percent was improvised, including “The Unforgiven” solo. Nowadays I prefer to have it the opposite way, with 20 percent worked out and 80 percent improvised, because it’s more exciting, more spontaneous and honest. I don’t know what’s going to be on the album as much as anyone else! It feels right doing it like that, it feels better – rather than composing something and making it fit, sometimes forcing things where they might not feel right. Pure improvisation is more real and human.

Do you agree that Hammett’s guitar playing was “spot on” throughout The Black Album, or do you think he was even better on a different Metallica LP? Let us know!

More About The Black Album

Released on Aug. 12, 1991, The Black Album found Metallica shifting away from their thrash metal roots to achieve more mainstream success with a sleeker and more welcoming heavy metal vibe.

Obviously, that change in direction remains divisive with longtime/diehard fans, yet given how popular standouts such as “Enter Sandman,” “Sad But True,” “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” became, the choice certainly paid off. In fact, The Black Album is metal’s biggest selling album ever, as it recently sold more than 20 million copies in the U.S. alone. (Only 13 other albums have ever sold that many copies, and none of them fit into the metal genre.)

So, there’s no refuting how beloved The Black Album continues to be, as well as how much of a game-changer it was for metal in general.

Hammett + Metallica in 2025

In recent months, Loudwire reported on what Hammett thought of Nirvana’s Nevermind before it came out, plus why “Junior Dad” (from Metallica’s perplexing team-up with Lou Reed, 2011’s Lulu) makes him cry. Hammett’s also discussed why “everyone in the world should own Van Halen,” as well as why the main riff in Black Sabbath’s “Symptom of the Universe” (from 1975’s Sabotage) flat-out “shifted heavy metal.”

As for Metallica as a whole, the quartet played an extremely rare live cut – “The Shortest Straw” – at this year’s Sonic Temple. They also revealed some 2026 U.K. and European tour dates (with support from Avatar, Pantera, Knocked Loose and/or Gojira).

In addition, a Virginia family said that their plans to see a Metallica concert actually saved them from being hurt when a car crashed into their living room last month. Unsurprisingly, May 2025 also saw Megadeth mastermind Dave Mustaine once again claim that “Enter Sandman” stole from an Excel song called “Tapping Into the Emotional Void” (from 1989’s The Joke’s On You).