Riff Police! Pull Over! #66: Hammerhands Vs Metallica!

It has to be said. There are people out there who absolutely despise “The Black Album” from Metallica. They see it as the beginning of the end. They say it’s not “Master Of Puppets” and frankly they’re right. But one person who stands by the album is Slayer guitarist Kerry King. Back in 2016, he said he felt that Metallica and Iron Maiden were both living on past success with too long between albums and massive World Tour cycles. To be fair, he’s right on that score. In the early days there was a year between the albums and now the San Francisco Thrashers have reached 8 years between “Death Magnetic” and “Hardwired…”. Back in 1991, “The Black Album” had 5 big singles, all of which are probably the bands best known songs outside of the Metal community (there is actually life outside of the Metal community, shock horror). Third single “Nothing Else Matters” premiered in February 1992 with a video directed by Adam Dubin filmed during the recording of the album in Spring 1991 in North Hollywood, California.

And now check out “Not in the Cards” from Mississauga, Ontario Canada’s HAMMERHANDS. The Sludge Metal meets Noise Rock quartet released “Model Citizen” in July, which was recorded, mixed and mastered by Collin Young at B-town Sound Studio. If you can’t spot the “Nothing Else Matters” riff in it… then rewind the tape and play it again… They wouldn’t be the first and we highly doubt they’d be the last to be influenced by Metallica. After all, there can’t be many model citizens who can’t name a Metallica tune in this day and age, can there?