Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett has just announced Portals, a four-track EP that marks his first venture as a solo artist and the first-ever solo project to come from any member of the band as an active member. “Initially, before I even had the idea for a solo EP, I was inspired by the need to create some sort of soundtrack music to accompany The Kirk Hammett Collection for the first ‘It’s Alive’ exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, 2017,” said Hammett in a press statement. “I wanted to conceive music to play on a loop in the background as people walked through the …