HorrorHR Tamnica

By the time that Metallica’s Kirk Hammett became a record-collecting, guitar-toting hard rock fan at the age of 13, the Central California native had already spent half of his life focused on another cultural obsession. “I’ve been a huge horror fan since I was five years old -- that’s when I saw my first horror movie, and I started buying horror comic books and monster magazines when I was six,” recalls the 54-year-old.

Hammett kept accumulating memorabilia, including vintage posters of his favorite scary flicks, after becoming Metallica’s lead guitarist at age 20, and his expansive collection will be on display for the first time during an exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., beginning Aug. 12.