FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Hetfield person - Caught on Camera

"It's great when music leaves your head and inhabits your body, but there are some songs where you need to keep thinking." The story behind Metallica's apocalyptic thrash masterpiece, Blackened

“Dude, that riff’s good enough to open our album."

Metal Hammer · Jul 25

“I can’t believe the pick scrape became a thing. It was born by mistake”: Gojira’s Joe Duplantier on the origins of his trademark technique, playing Ozzy Osbourne’s final show – and what he’s got cooking with ESP

As the frontman looks back at 20 years of Gojira’s groundbreaking From Mars to Sirius, he explains why switching guitar brands is not like having an affair, and how he learned about Ozzy Osbourne’s death as the band were midway through a show

Guitar World · Aug 20, 2025

“Hetfield personally hooked me up with them back in the day. I’m not cheating on anyone. I want all the instruments!” Gojira’s Joe Duplantier explains how he started playing ESP guitars – and why he’s still playing Charvels

The Gojira guitarist stunned gearheads with his custom ESP at last year's Paris Olympics opening ceremony – now, he's explaining his relationship with the guitar brand

Guitar World · Aug 6, 2025

How Drain’s Cody Chavez made one of this year’s finest hardcore albums using an arsenal of Jackson Dinkys – and an LTD that got run over by a car

An album of wild stylistic turns and high-energy guitar, Drain's Living Proof is living proof that more is more when it comes to hardcore

Guitar World · Jun 29, 2023

The Offspring's Noodles on why he picks Ibanez Talmans over Les Pauls – and that time he played James Hetfield's Explorer

One of punk-rock's most distinctive lead guitarists on why mistakes make the best riffs, the unlikely vintage guitar that's his no. 1 electric for recording, and how super-producer Bob Rock shook up the band's gear habits on Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

Guitar World · Jun 27, 2023

10 Metallica guitar techniques you need to know

How the rhythm and lead styles of James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett will power up your metal playing fast

Guitar World · Jun 9, 2023

Robert Trujillo: “We have more riffs than we know what to do with. With every handful of riffs we get out of Kirk, there’s another 500 we didn’t hear”

Now a 20-year veteran as Metallica bassist, Trujillo details the secret weapons that locked in with James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett's guitar tones on 72 Seasons, and the key to getting extra grit from fingerstyle bass

Guitar World · May 26, 2023

“We’re bored, let’s do some stuff” – How James Hetfield wrote Metallica’s longest-ever song in a Zoom call with Lars

Hetfield and Ulrich tell Apple Music's Zane Lowe that one minute you're bored on Zoom, the next you have a Sabbath-inspired riff, and before long you have the most epic track you’ve ever written

MusicRadar · May 12, 2023

James Hetfield on Metallica's new creative era: "I don't want to sit there and create the songs with Lars anymore – I want everyone to be a part of it and be in it"

The frontman is candid about the need for new approaches in an interview with Metallica's fanzine

MusicRadar · May 10, 2023