Tag Archives: Lars Ulrich

Lars gets interviewed by Howard Stern

Lars was on Howard Stern a few days ago, but for some reason I’m posting about it now. Deal with it.

Here it is, in six parts:

Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:

Like a rolling stone…

Lars Ulrich, the guy who starred in the comedy “Dude, why are we crying and talking to a faux-shrink? We’re fucking rich and famous and should be real men in our mid-40s!!!” (alternative title: Some Kind of Monster), talked to Rolling Stone magazine about the recent Big Four gig at the Yankee Stadium in New York.

The interview is above, and you guessed it: Lars talks about the ‘good vibe,’ nostalgia, and blah blah blah. At no point have I heard any mentions of ‘buttloads of cash,’ ‘new Mercedes lease,’ or ‘brand new painting’ — which to me, sound like the real reasons they’d pretend to get along with the other bands.

But hey, judging from some of the footage and photos I’ve seen, it looked like an awesome show. I would have loved to be there, but I’m not rich, so I can’t even afford a hotdog at the Yankee Stadium, let alone a ticket.

With two Big Four shows under my belt, I can honestly say, in spite of my being skeptical of this new-found friendship they keep talking about, being at a Big Four show is pretty awesome. Even if you think the bands suck now, they’re still pretty good live. Well, some of them are.

So next time they’ll play together, and believe me — $$ there will be a next time $$ — try to make it. It’s really better than sitting at home and streaming porn.

Actually, it’s kind of the same thing. What does jerking off have in common with going to a Big Four show? You feel fucked at the end, but you’re pretty sure it wasn’t by a girl. ZING!!!

I keed, I keed, it’s a pretty good show.

St. Anger was an isolated incident

We may not be the best metal blog around. We’re even worse than some lame Blogspot ones, at least according to other metal sites (hint hint). But there’s one thing we do well, and that’s having sex. We’re amazing at that.

Aside from sex, we’re also quite good at putting some balls behind our interviews. Insulting our interviewees is the last thing on our minds, but we do try to ask atypical questions. When you read a DoM interview, you know it’s a DoM interview. It has the perfect mix of humor and retarded questions.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, because I just read an excerpt from an interview with Lars Ulrich, and I can’t help but think the interviewer has balls. Leave it to the Brits (it’s from a British magazine called Classic Rock) to ask the right questions.

“Classic Rock: Is it fair to say St. Anger is your worst album?
Lars: I think it’s fair to say that some people think that.

Classic Rock: Would you agree with them?
Lars: I can’t. The way I view the world, I can’t rank them from best to worst. That kind of simplicity just doesn’t exist for me. If I was 14, I could probably do it. Now, the way I see the world is nothing but greys, mainly.

Classic Rock: The drum sound on that record was abysmal.
Lars: That was on purpose. It wasn’t like we put it out and somebody went, “Whoa! Whoops!” I view St. Anger as an isolated experiment. I’m the biggest Metallica fan, you’ve got to remember that. Once again, as we’ve been known to do, once in a while these boundaries have to be fucked with. We’d already done Ride The Lightning, which I believe is a fine record. It didn’t need to be re-done.

Classic Rock: But even the good songs on St. Anger go on forever.
Lars: When we heard the record from beginning to end, I felt — and it was mostly me — that the experience was so pummeling, it became almost about hurting the listener, about challenging the listener, so we left the songs unedited. I can understand that people felt it was too long.“

The interviewer simply went for the kill. But not to insult Lars, just to ask him the questions all of us want to ask. A decade too late, but still.

Now, I do understand Lars had to avoid answering directly, he’s not just gonna admit one of his band’s studio efforts is bad. But did he really have to admit that James’ stage persona is fake and that he is insecure on the inside?

“He’s much sweeter and more vulnerable than people think he is. Most of that toughness, that he-man thing, that was just a façade for him to deal with his own insecurities.“

That will help with James’ metal cred.

The excerpt is from Blabbermouth, read a bit more here. I think you have to buy the magazine to read the whole thing. What’s a magazine, you ask? No idea, I don’t live in the 18th fucking century.

Metallica have 700 new riffs

Lars Ulrich revealed in a recent Metal Hammer interview that Metallica have over 700 new riffs to choose from for their new album.

“James told me in Australia that he had over 700 riffs. That was slightly overwhelming. When I spoke to him yesterday, he told me that he’d been playing guitar again in the last couple of weeks. And listen, when James tunes his guitar, he comes up with three to five usable guitar riffs. It’s kind of frightening. James is not allowed to play guitar without being recorded. Literally!“

Read full article here.

I’m not gonna lie, I actually believe that. I don’t think anyone (who knows anything about guitar playing) can disagree with the fact that James is a brilliant guitar player, especially in terms of writing. The question is, what inspires him these days? Is it actual metal, or softer stuff? I think Lars has an answer for that as well…

“The side of Metallica that we are having a lot of fun with right now is the harder, faster, more manic, more out-of-control stuff than, say, the ‘Load’–‘Reload’ British blues stuff. Playing a lot of the full-on metal stuff like ‘Dyers Eve’ and ‘The Shortest Straw’. We played ‘The Call Of Ktulu’ in Australia. Bringing out ‘Trapped Under Ice’ again… It’s just been cool to feel comfortable about embracing that side of Metallica.“

That’s not just ‘a side’ of Metallica though. That IS Metallica, at least as far as most people are concerned. It’s the Load/Reload era that was ‘another side’ of the band. I don’t know too many people who fell in love with this band because of songs like ‘Prince Charming.’

But I’m sure everyone is happy to hear that they’re sticking to the harder stuff still.

Make the jump for a video of two Canadian synchronized swimmers swimming to a ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Master Of Puppets.’

Metallica aren’t selfish

If you thought Metallica are selfish, think again! They aren’t, that’s why they chose ‘Am I Evil’ as the one song to perform together on stage with the other three bands… They’ve performed together again at the Indio gig.

“We felt that you’re not going to invite people to come onstage and start playing a Metallica song. That would seem a little selfish, so you want to find a cover song that had some resonance towards what’s going on“ said Lars Ulrich in an interview.

My personal opinion is that they chose this song as one band already knew it, and it was very easy to learn and practice by the rest. The performance in Sofia last year (which I’ve been to, cause I’m amazing) was really just a DVD moment, I don’t think they thought too much of it in advance… I think they just decided to do something quick for all the cameras, so that was an easy choice. But that’s just me.

“I would like to be a little more adventurous and not rely on the same song if there are continued jams. There are other things we can do, and I know that Tom [Araya] from Slayer was talking about [Metallica’s] “The Four Horsemen.” Inviting the other bands to come up and play a Metallica song just doesn’t seem right“ continued Lars…

Yeah, I’ll say. I don’t think they should perform a Metallica song, but they should do a medley of all four bands’ greatest hits. I’ve suggested this to David Ellefson when I interviewed him, and he seemed keen on the idea. Wouldn’t that be something special that would honor all four bands equally?

“You know, I’m not afraid to go anywhere. Maybe we’ll play a Slayer song instead”

Read full interview here.

Or maybe you’ll just take my advice and do a medley. Dave could join you guys beforehand just for one or two performances of old Kill Em All songs you wrote together.

I should be fucking hired by these guys, so much productivity in a single blog post. And if you are considering seeing the upcoming Big Four gigs in Europe, read this rant to get motivated.