Kirk Hammett Reads Poe as Metallica Takes Horror to the Sphere

By Daniel Okafor

What does the Halloween video show?

Kirk Hammett’s Halloween video presents seven stanzas of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” with Metallica’s “Inamorata” supplying the soundtrack as his voice moves through Poe’s closer.

Metallica’s guitarist and an acknowledged horror enthusiast sits on a couch for the reading. He wears a raven-black jacket carrying the poem’s titular bird and a grim reaper. A charred-black skeleton peers over his shoulder. Uplighting makes the set more menacing, while images of ravens flit by.

The clip resembles a horror-film trailer built around a recital. Hammett supplies the voice, costume, props and seasonal signal. Nothing here mistakes restraint for subtlety.

The reading arrives less as a neutral literary recital than as an extension of tastes visible elsewhere in Hammett’s life. The jacket, skeleton and ravens gather interests already present in his poster collecting and poster-covered guitars.

“Inamorata” is the final song on Metallica’s latest album, 72 Seasons. The choice also settles the video’s one seasonal question. Hammett’s vote is clear enough: autumn.

How did horror cinema shape Portals?

Beyond Metallica, Hammett collects rare movie posters. He once produced his own convention, Fear FestEvil. He also plays guitars bearing classic horror-film posters. His interest appears in collecting, event-making and instrument design alike.

In 2022, Hammett released Portals, an instrumental solo album (music without vocals) inspired by horror movies. Hammett said the idea grew from his work with composer and conductor Edwin Outwater, who had conducted the symphony at Metallica’s S&M2 concerts a few years earlier.

Portals gave that collecting impulse a recorded form. Hammett’s account makes the project’s starting point unusually simple: two horror-themed pieces, followed by a shared decision to record them.

In a 2022 Rolling Stone interview, Hammett explained:

“When I met him, we hit it off right off the bat because he’s a horror fan,” Hammett said.

“I just said to him, ‘Man, you got to check out these two pieces of music that I wrote that are kind of horror themed. You and I should do something together.’ And he said, ‘I’d love to do it.’”

Examples from the album’s track list include:

• “Maiden and the Monster”
• “The Jinn”
• “The Incantation”

The titles leave little room for ambiguity. Hammett’s program is horror with the genre’s vocabulary left intact.

What does the Sphere residency add?

At the time of the report, Hammett and Metallica were midway through Life Burns Faster, a residency (an extended run of concerts) at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The globular venue has shown imagery that could have come from horror movies during some of the band’s songs.

For “Ride the Lightning,” the presentation places headbangers (metal fans) in the seat of an electric chair. For “The Call of Ktulu,” it takes on a giant, Lovecraftian monster. The thread runs from a guitarist’s poster collection and solo record into the band’s Las Vegas staging.

Two gigs were scheduled at the Sphere that week. One was set for Halloween. The Poe video therefore lands as a compact preview of the residency’s horror-minded design and repertoire.

With the Halloween concert still listed, the reading offers the clearest sign of what the Las Vegas staging intends to make of the genre: subject, image and live effect.