Kirk Hammett on Guitar Hero

Kirk Hammett, A.V. Club:

AVC: Are you aware of the online petition to re-engineer Death Magnetic?

KH: Yes! A lot of people say the Guitar Hero mixes sound better than the CD. I haven’t really sat down and done much comparison, but our fans are always gonna find something they’re not totally satisfied with, and they’re going to pick it to pieces. That’s fine with me, because it tells me they want more from us. They just want more, and they’re going to do anything or say anything to get more.

AVC: Was hearing about the preference for the Guitar Hero mix another moment when you realized how much things have changed? People prefer this digital version that came through their game console over the physical product of the CD.

KH: It’s amazing. I don’t know how it happened, but it just happened, and now that’s the way it is. You really can’t fight it. I tell everyone once upon a time there was this thing called analog recording, and it sounded really, really great—it sounded much better than anything you hear these days. I really can’t understand how I could come to a point that I can say that CDs sound so much better than MP3s. There was a time when I would say “CDs sound like fucking crap compared to vinyl!” Now it’s come to a point where I’m saying CDs sound better than the newest format now. It’s just wacky.