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We all have our ways to escape. For Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, it’s always been metal and horror.

On an episode of Backstaged: the Devil in Metal, Hammett said he would escape to his room to play his guitar to get away from his abusive father.

“My mom was struggling to support me and my sister. I’ve definitely channeled a lot of anger into the music,” Hammett said. “I just knew that guitar playing helped me feel better and calmed me down as an adolescent, as a teenager, as an adult, up to like now. I mean, I have a lot of anxiety and I’m prone to depression like most people. My guitar helps me through all that.”

He added, “A good heavy metal song is like a good horror movie. It’s intense, it’s unpredictable. It has a lot of the same feelings of the darker things in life … Your brain just gets that feeling.”