Any longtime Metallica fan knows that lead guitarist Kirk Hammett has an obsession with horror films. Many of his guitars are decorated with classic horror imagery, like The Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, and much more. Hammett is an avid collector of horror memorabilia, so it makes sense that the musician would put together a photo book of all of his very rare collection, which will include commentaries on each piece written by Hammett himself.

Hammett was on a recent episode of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show where he talked about the book, titled Too Much Horror Business, and how he’s spent the last two years so far cataloging for the book his vast collection of vintage horror movie toys and posters from the 1920s to the present.

The image above is of the book cover that was shown on the show though I don’t know if that’s the final cover image. Amazon has the release date as October 1, 2011, though Hammett seemed like he was merely hoping the book would come out some time this year. (When I contacted the publisher, they did not at this time have any updates on the project or any promo material to share.)

For the episode, Hammett did bring a photo of the introductory spread from the book, which has an photograph of the guitarist standing between custom-made mannequins of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Hammett had the mannequins created in order to display the very expensive, rare costumes he purchased. You can see a screenshot of that opening photo spread here below.

You can also watch the entire episode in the video below — note, Hammett’s appearance begins in the second segment (so, after the first 11-minutes) and then he’s on for the rest of the show. Also on the episode is former Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth and the guest guitarist for the episode is Whitesnake’s Doug Aldrich.

October is the perfect time of year for a book like this to be released, and while I’ve heard Hammett mention his collection plenty of times over the years — and I recall back in the 1980s seeing photos in metal magazines of the guitarist surrounded by some of his stuff — I think it will be a real treat to see high-quality photos of these collectibles and to read from Hammett himself what drew him to obtain theses items. I’m really looking forward to this one, so hoping he’ll complete this project in time for Halloween (the day before my birthday, hint hint).

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