Disclaimer: No fan of the band will want to read what thoughts this sparked. I don’t want to fight anyone about this, but I also don’t want to hold back just because they are such business juggernauts, and this is the internet. And I don't mean any of what I say as a personal slight to any fans of Hammett; these are just one weirdo's personal thoughts.
I know it’s the case, but I’ve never heard it in Hammett's playing that he was a student of Satriani. I used to read Satriani‘a columns in Guitar for the Practicing Musician religiously. To me, no one was more respectful to the listener, more thoughtful in general, although I never understood his decision to sing haha, and I've always loved the EP Dreaming #11 best. Now, Jeff Tyson on the T-Ride album, that performance I can really hear as the work of a Satriani student. I can even hear how Satriani was the person who convinced the guys in Forbidden where to sign for their second album (a fact I only learned recently via a Locicero interview via podcast), but I feel like it’s a stain on Satriani for Hammett somehow to have been the most successful one.
I remember I felt like it was the cruelest thing when Chuck Schuldiner died; he had directly criticized Hammett’s playing as “safe,” and I had read separately that Schuldiner had always dreamt of being on the cover of Guitar World. When the next issue of Guitar World came out after his death, it had Hammett on the cover. I saw it at the bookstore, and I distinctly remember feeling this sick, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I know intellectually it’s a fluke, but that, I guess in my own mourning, hit me very hard, like it was a cosmic statement about how much guitar playing is existentially worth.
Obviously I’m not a fan of Hammett as a player (although as a person he seems like a guy who's really nice). To me, much of his small contribution to …And Justice for All is criminally lazy, and directly weakens otherwise painfully crafted and orchestrated writing and performance. I've felt strongly about this for a long time, and honestly, I don't think either guitarist's overall sense of overall tuning is something they thought much about. Hell, they might just been stinking drunk and not realized they were handed a downtuned guitar for a demo.
I remember seeing a news story about a sense of arrested development in baseball players when I was pretty young, and I would sometimes link that to what I saw in some bands who put out particular work that I worshipped. I know these guys were all just kids, and they toured and recorded ferociously to get where they were, but still, just kids. I don't see anything slipping though the cracks of musical education as a big deal or a big surprise, and weirdly, I say that without harsh judgment haha.
I used to teach guitar when I was in high school, and for some years following, but, of course, there's always one student you always marvel at, why they show up to lessons, because they don't listen, no matter how damn hard you try. I know it's the case that Hammett was a student; I feel like he was just not a sponge for whatever it was Satriani was imparting.
Satriani was a guest on That Metal Show, and was asked whether Dave Mustaine or Kirk Hammett was a better player. I was cringing before he responded, because I knew this bit of trivia that he was a teacher to Hammett, but I still couldn't deal with his response, that Hammett is more "mature" of a player. I had the impression right then he had no idea what kind of creative force Dave Mustaine was as a player, that he had no basis of comparison. It would have been way better to say sheepishly, "I don't really listen to either band," which would have been totally fine. Satriani's main inspiration was Hendrix, and I'd understand and respect having no gut response to thrash, or to metal generally. But to speak thoughtlessly about it just felt like a weirdly defferential nod to someone I always imagined was his worst student.
That band was so far ahead of its time.
If the playing is so off-putting to you, that you find it an insult, I think you need to look inward for the solution. Its a f'in band, playing music, for FUN, ffs.
, that’s the 4th big band that I know that switch with this product . Then … we are all the same we like to change … every product can sound good when you are a good player . Still never tried a qc and probably never will, as the demos are bad and the product expensive but …
