Q&A: Metallica talks Guitar Hero

(Credit: Activision)

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If there’s one truism about such music-based video games as “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” it’s that while even bad songs can be fun to play, these games are a lot more fun when the songs you’re playing are great.

Which is why our hopes are high for “Guitar Hero: Metallica,” which RedOctane/Activision Blizzard will release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 29, and on the PlayStation 2 and Wii later this year. As the band recently revealed on their Web site, the track listing not only includes the expected classics (“Enter Sandman,” “Creeping Death,” “One”) but also some deeper cuts (“Disposable Heroes,” “The Thing That Should Not Be,” “Fight Fire with Fire”) as well as tunes by some other heavy bands as Slayer, Corrosion of Conformity and Samhain.

We recently spoke to the band’s own guitar hero and recovering gamer, Kirk Hammett—who, like the rest of the band, is currently touring in support of their new album, “Death Magnetic”—about how the band went digital.

How did this game come about?
The developers approached us. There had been Metallica songs in “Guitar Hero” games before, and other songs you could download, and apparently we’re the most downloaded band for the game. I guess that said something to them.

What was your reaction when they approached you?
We said, “Hell yeah!” It’s a natural fit, if you ask me.

You were, at one point, doing a car combat video game that ultimately fell apart. It doesn’t sound like that experience soured you on the idea of a Metallica video game.
No. We knew “Guitar Hero” was huge, but it’s also just a better setting. It isn’t as out-of-context to what we do.

Who decided what songs would be in the game?
We as a band pretty much decided what songs should be in there and which shouldn’t. We wanted it to be comprehensive, something that would run the gamut from [their 1983 debut] “Kill ’Em All” to “Death Magnetic,” and also simple songs to more complicated songs. Though we also included other bands, bands we’ve played with and bands that we’ve been influenced by.

Were there any that you guys really wanted that the developers didn’t, or vice versa?
It’s strange, we actually all feel the same way about our music. We tend to all love the same songs we’ve done, and all hate the same songs. So deciding what songs would be in the game was very easy, it was a no brainer. We came up with our list pretty quickly. Though I’m really happy the "Mercyful Fate" medley is in there.

That’s going to be a tough one.
It’s a tough one for me to play on guitar. I’m interested to see how tough it will be in the game.

Metallica’s songs are usually pretty tough in these kinds of games.
Alright! Glad to hear it.

Were there any songs you guys chose that the developers were surprised you included? Or omitted?
I don’t really remember. Though I know they were surprised by some of the other bands we wanted to have in the game. I don’t remember which ones, but there were a couple where they were like, “Really?” They understood a lot of the bands we wanted, but we also got a bit esoteric on them.

Did anyone, even as a joke, suggest putting in a Jethro Tull song? Or a Megadeth song? Or a Celine Dion song?
Heh. No, we wanted every slot to count.

The version of “Death Magnetic” that you released for “Guitar Hero” had two different versions of the song “Suicide & Redemption.” Will “Guitar Hero: Metallica” have anything like that, or any new songs?
No, but only because when that would’ve happened we were still in the midst of working on “Death Magnetic” and had our hands full. I know the idea of doing something did come up for about two seconds, but there was no time to do anything like that. We were basically running out of time, so we had to keep our focus on “Death Magnetic.”

A few years ago, I did an interview with you in which I had you play the Japanese proto-"Guitar Hero" game "GuitarFreaks." And you sucked at it.
Ha! Yeah.

Have you gotten any better at these things?
Not really. I’m still struggling with my own instrument. And now that I have two small kids, my practice time has shrunk considerably, so every moment I can play my own guitar, I jump on it.

Does that mean you haven’t been playing any other games lately?
No. The thing about video games and me is that I’m O.C.D., and so if I start playing a game, I don’t eat, I don’t sleep, I don’t play guitar, I don’t do anything else until the game is done. And then I crash for three days. So I’ve made a point of staying away lately. Though it’ll be difficult when our “Guitar Hero” comes out because it will be difficult for me to not play my own game.

Have you guys, as a band, played “Guitar Hero: Metallica” together?
No. I know a couple guys have played some of it. I think Lars has played it. But I’ve seen it. At a show we were doing in Europe, the game was set up in the dressing room.

What do you think of the way you and the other guys look in the game?
We actually have had a lot to do with the way we look in the game. They would send us renderings of ourselves, and we would okay them. Though, for me, every time I tried to make an adjustment, I would just end up making it look less like me, so I eventually just went back to the initial version. Though there’s actually four different ways we look in the game. There’s the way we look in the movies, there’s how we looked in the ’80s, there’s how we look now and there’s an… alternative look that we don’t really want to go into yet.

It’s not you guys as robots, is it?
No.

Zombies?
I don’t want to give too much away.

So what do you think looks more like you, the way you look in the game or the way you looked on “The Simpsons”?
Ha! Definitely “The Simpsons.” I actually liked the way we looked on “The Simpsons,” I think they nailed it… as accurately as “The Simpsons” can.