“Something like this takes on a different sort of meaning now than it would have 20 years ago.”

After almost forty years of defining heavy metal through his work with Metallica, Kirk Hammett is today widely celebrated as one of the genre’s best-loved guitarists. So far, we’ve mainly had the chance to indulge in just one of the guitarist’s many creative sides – but with tomorrow’s (April 23) release of “Portals”, things are about to change.Hammett previously described the sound of his debut solo EP as “100%” him, but the EP’s four instrumental tracks mark a distinct departure from the material he’s written for Metallica so far. Two of the EP’s tracks – “Maiden and the Monster”, and “The Jinn” – Hammett wrote with his wife Lani as background music for his two horror exhibitions, while the remaining two Hammett created alongside the San Francisco Symphony conductor Edwin Outwater, with whom he bonded over their shared love for horror during Metallica’s famous S&M2 concerts.

There appears to be a bit of Hammett that still finds it difficult to believe that “Portals” is really coming to fruition, as having a member of Metallica embark on a solo project would be impossible to even imagine twenty years ago. Hammett tells Rolling Stone in a new interview:

“I was also pretty shocked that I got the complete band’s blessings on it. It was amazing because our band has not had a lot of great progress with band members going solo, as everyone knows. 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…

“Well, I don’t know if we’re wiser, but we’re definitely older, and a little bit more mature, a little bit more responsible. So something like this takes on a different sort of meaning now than it would have 20 years ago.”

Of course, things were much different for Lars Ulrich & Co. back then. Jason Newsted’s working on his own side-project Echobrain famously created a rift between him and his former bandmates, which eventually led to Newsted leaving the band, and Metallica entering the notoriously difficult period (as captured on the 2004 documentary “Some Kind of Monster”).

In a 2001 interview with Playboy, Hetfield commented how a band member embarking on a side project “takes away from the strength of the band”. With Hetfield’s statement in mind, Hammett was asked to explain what made Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield adopt a mellower stance towards side projects. The guitarist replied:

“Well, we kind of see it like this: We’re not musicians, we’re artists. Ethically, morally, and creatively, it’s wrong to deny someone the opportunities to express themselves and create. And I think that’s kind of where everyone is sitting right now. Also, now we’re so much more accepting of what happens in our lives because so much stuff has happened to us in the last 20 years — so much stuff has happened in the last five years.

“I think we’re a little bit more aware of our own mortality and how much more time we have as functioning artists, musicians, and band members. So 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.

“And those guys know I ain’t fucking going anywhere. Metallica is my fucking bed. Metallica is my home, and it would be fruitless to leave the band because, if I did, people would be reminding me every single day of how I was the Metallica guitar player.

“I don’t want to be put in a situation where I have to resist that. I want to always fucking be seen as just another guy in Metallica trying to make the best music along with these other three guys because that’s basically what we do. That’s our calling. It’s what the freaking universe wants us to do. I think along those lines.”

Today, Kirk Hammett also released the accompanying music video from “High Plains Drifter”, an Ennio Morricone-sounding piece taken from his upcoming EP.