Hey actually I believe kirk hammett is one of the best guitarest ever, and i do believe he still can play any of his solos but their problem is that they probably dont think that the music they wrote wont work now. And Lead has made its way out of main stream so i think thats why there is no more lead, it sucks because we all know they can put out awesome songs if they would just stick to what they always have(except for everything after black album. O well maybe they will think about writing an album like there 80's albums.