From February 6th to 8th, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett held his first ever Fear FestEvil convention In San Francisco, CA at The Regency Ballroom. he spoke with Noisey during the event; an excerpt from the interview is available below:

Q: You’re probably tired of answering this, but how have you adapted your views on piracy since the '90s and the Napster lawsuit?

Hammett: "It’s just become too big of a beast to try to control. The best thing to do is to try to put a positive spin on it and embrace it for what it is because it’s still keeping our music alive and out there, and people are still hearing us and listening to us. We’re just learning how to roll with the changes. The whole piracy thing, the whole Internet thing, really destroyed the record industry, and it ended up changing music and the way it even sounds. Now, it just seems like there’s less of a drive to be the best musician you can be or the best band that you can be because you can record anything, and put it out there, and people will say, 'Hey, that’s great!' or, 'No, that’s sucks,' whatever. It used to be that you had to really work hard to earn the respect selling albums, competing with all the other great bands making great albums—that just doesn’t exist anymore. Everyone just kinda throws an album out there and it kinda just floats around in the cyber-world."

"What I miss is, there was a time when people would rally behind bands. When an album came out, it was a huge event that everyone spoke about, and you’d go down to the record store and see other people buying it and other people excited, and, 'Have you heard this yet!?' 'No, I haven’t!'—all that is gone now because of the Internet. The convenience of it is great but it really put a big fuckin’ kibosh on all that shit. Maybe I’m lamenting that a little bit, but it was a great time to be a musician, or a fan, and now because of this culture of convenience we have, it’s just changed differently. Now, I’m glad that we’re an established band but I’d hate to be a band that was just starting out because it’s so much more difficult and the musical audience seems much more divided these days from person to person, whereas back in the day, it was a musical community thing, and now it’s all divided, and separated, and everyone’s just on their own course."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

According to Journaldemontreal.com, after several unsuccessful attempts by organizers, Metallica are rumoured to headline sixth edition Heavy Montréal, being held August 8, 9 and 10 August at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte -Hélène in Quebec.

The official schedule for Heavy Montréal will be announced this Monday, March 3rd at 6PM and weekend passes will go on sale on Friday, March 7th at noon on Heavymontreal.com.

Says organizer Nick Farkas: “From its inception in 2008, Heavy MTL was created as a festival that would embrace the heavier side of music, from guitar rock to metal and everything in between. For 2014 we are excited to present a reinvigorated Heavy Montréal. With a brand new look and a programming direction that returns to our roots, 2014 is poised to be Heavy's break out year.”

This year, the festival is also introducing a new logo, in the image of its renewed identity. The logo and the new identity were created by artist Pat Hamou under the direction of Heavy Montréal’s programming team.

“We wanted to have a logo that reflects our roots but that also celebrates Montreal and its landmarks," added Nick Farkas.The logo also represents our desire to be more inclusive. We are very happy with the result”