'Guitar Hero' and Metallica

In a few hours, Kirk Hammett and the rest of Metallica will take the stage at Stubb's in Austin,Texas. It's South By Southwest weekend and there are thousands of fans already lined up outside Stubb's—an outdoor, gravel-floored venue about half the size of a high school soccer field—and amassed atop a parking garage across the street, hoping to catch the "secret" show when it happens later tonight.

At the moment, the guitarist ranked #11 out of Rolling Stone's 100 greatest is calmly sipping herbal tea in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel. Kirk Hammett is here to talk about video games. The SXSW gig and their impending induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame may be capturing mainstream headlines, but Metallica's triumphant resurgence, which began last September with the release of "Death Magnetic," is getting an emphatic boost from the rise of music gaming.

Released March 29 for Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, "Guitar Hero: Metallica" is the latest in Activision's insanely popular "Guitar Hero" franchise. Using the Guitar Hero World Tour full-band package, up to four players can assume Metallica's entire lineup, shredding Hammett's solos, roaring with James Hetfield's vocals, crashing the kit as drummer Lars Ulrich, and unleashing Robert Trujillo's bass lines.

"When you watch it, it is us playing the song," Hammett says. "It's Lars doing his whole theatrical drumming sorta deal, it's James with his swagger, you know, it's me with my weird sort of head-banging style, and it's Rob with his particular heavy-handed approach. Really, it's there."

As a parting shot, Hammett addresses the online petition to remaster the band's 2008 record, "Death Magnetic." As of March 31, 2009, 20,120 fans are clamoring for a better CD version, which they claim sounds inferior to the version released on "Guitar Hero."

"I haven't really sat down and done much comparison, but you know, people are always gonna..." Like a diplomat, Hammet rephrases his response as both criticism and compliment. "Lemme just put it this way: Our fans are always gonna find something that they're not satisfied with, and they're gonna pick it to pieces. [That] tells me they just want more from us, and they're gonna do anything or say anything to get more. And I'm totally fine with that."

Jonathan Zwickel writes about music for the Seattle Times and is working on a biography of the Beastie Boys.