I think he does several unique things in his style that nobody else does that always stuck out to me. We just did a bunch of interviews, and sometimes, if I am being interviewed by a journalist who is also a fan, they'll say, 'When people say Lars Ulrich is a shitty drummer, I defend you. I've got an incredible wife, three great kids, my dad and [his partner] Molly , incredible friends, and lots of cool acquaintances.
It's all good. I've got nothing left to prove, so it just doesn't register anymore. Back in , Ulrich , who has gotten a lot of flak over the years from people who accused him of being a poor drummer, told the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast that he went through a period in the mids "that probably culminated in the 'Justice' album where I felt sort of compelled to try to show ability.
And then, after like a year or two of that, I was, like, 'Okay. Just do your thing. Chill out. Support the riffs. Do what's best for the song. Asked in a interview with U. But then you wake up one day and you're like, whatever. My suspicion is that this is just a way for morons who have no idea what they're talking about to pretend like they do by jumping on a trendy bandwagon.
Also a way for people still fuming about filesharing to vent their inner rage at the temerity of a rich rock star to assert some right over distribution of his own music i.
Or maybe just some simple way to write off an unlikable character. I have my suspicions that these are the actual drivers of this claim. Now, I pass the question to you: is Lars Ulrich a terrible drummer? If not, where did this view originate? If he is, please provide supporting evidence. Out-of-context footage from 'Some Kind of Monster' will be summarily dismissed. I'm not really a Metallica fan, so am not exactly qualified to have a lot of opinions about Ulrich's drumming.
What I can say is that compared to the drummers of metal bands I DO like, his drumming doesn't really stick out as being great. However, the Metallica documentary from a few years ago doesn't really make him look like a great musician either, so if there is some recent outpouring of criticism, that might have something to do with it. All of this said, I think agree with you in part Metallica basically represents the idea of a band selling out and leaving behind everything that made them good for a lot of metal fans.
Lars Ulrich is the most outspoken member of the band, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this kind of thing come down to conflating Metallica's modern-day suckiness with Lars Ulrich's drumming abilities. It just seems like some retarded meme. There are many great bands with merely servicable drumming, Dissection is another example where awesomeness in all other departments overshadows some very pedestrian drumming.
As a drummer he is what he is, and complements the music uniquely and on those records, perfectly. Also, although I don't like the Black Album Bob Rock really cracked the whip and got a superb drumming performance out of the guy. Not to mention a spectacular tone. Begrand , Wednesday, 25 March six years ago link. Tend to agree with A. Begrand, Siegbran, and most definitely with Poliopolice.
He plays like himself, which is exactly what he's setting out to do. His band appears to mostly like what he does and surely they don't want him to play like anybody else so what could possibly be the problem? IIRC the allegedly unacceptable sound on St. Anger is just a really high and bright piccolo snare, right? That's like having once tried a goatee or flared jeans.
A trendy experiment that didn't go well. Overall, his music is not my cup of tea. But as a fan of the drums, I think I'd rather hear his sincere, enthusiastic plodding than the flash and technique of one of those Drummer's Drummers with The Awesomest of Drummy Chops. He has trouble maintaining consistent tempo, adds extra beats in error, etc.
I'm really only familiar with the radio hits, and with whatever live stuff I happened to run across. He always seemed fine to me -- not exceptionally distinctive, but ideal for his situation. And didn't they make their early rep on live shows? If he couldn't hack it live, they wouldn't have, for instance, blown Ozzy off the stage every night as his opener which, ok, maybe not the highest bar set there He used to, in the mids, get so nervous that he'd speed up the songs to where they were way faster than on disc, which is hearable on those bootlegs.
Even Hetfield himself has basically intimated in interviews that Lars isn't a 'superstar' drummer. I mean we could debate all day whether we like his drumming despite that or if it detracts from the music at all or things like that but you flat out asked about his technique. Not to mention I think you're straw manning a bit - the opinions critical of Lars' drumming don't all say he's "terrible", there are a lot of people who merely say he's mediocre.
However, it's kinda "who cares" really - it doesn't hurt the albums at all. The band isn't musically tight - who gives a fuck really. James was a madman on stage back in the day as was Cliff and they played with a frenzied energy as stated above, Lars often sped up the songs significantly due to nerves. It isn't like he's the drummer on Sodom's early recordings where he can't even drum on the beat but he isn't particularly great.
Not really sure what the point of this thread is, as the OP seems to have come into it with an axe to grind rather than desiring to actually engage the topic. Kirk Hammett fucks up about as much as Lars live and doesn't get half the shit he does. ON the Cunning Stunts video during the solo to "One", he's so damn lazy that he falls two full measures behind on the solo, then gets a look of "oh shit" on his face and struggles to catch back up.
HSB-- I only have 'an axe to grind' if you believe that actively challenging some endlessly repeatedly opinion that rarely if ever appears with any supporting evidence is unreasonable. Yes, I have an opinion and I'm willing to state it outright, but i asked in my first message for anyone to offer up any specific evidence showing how he is terrible-- and no i don't think that's a strawman at all.
People often call him terrible and one of the worst drummers ever. Your statement about bootlegs is the first time I have ever heard anyone intimate anything approximating supporting evidence; my genuine impression thus far has been that most people with this view have not independently noticed his poor drumming, especially given that few have probably even heard Metallica bootlegs. You are free to disagree with my assessment, though I still would like to her some specific reference material if you can cite some recordings.
I would be particularly interested in hearing bad drumming on any of their proper albums. Well not everyone listens to bootlegs but hundreds of thousands of people have seen them live over the years, it's not as if he only played sloppily in his own basement or at this one show. I can fully understand that many a metalhead who also saw a Maiden or Slayer gig would find Metallica surprisingly messy - I did too.
My tolerance for shoddy musicianship is legendary tho. And I knew [bassist] Robert Trujillo , I had jammed with before, and he's a monster. When he joined the band, it was, like, 'Okay, they got the right guy. Ulrich spoke about his unique way of playing drums in a interview with Polar Music Prize. He stated at the time: "To me, it's always about the song and the band first.
And the drums, or the guitars, or whatever else is going on, is just part of the big picture. So what you always have to do is you have to check your ego at the door and do what's best for the song, for the music, for the overall sound. This guy is so great! I've never been very interested in playing drums by myself — you know, sitting down in a basement, practicing drum solos for hours at a time, that's not my thing.
So being in a band, writing songs, making records, being part of a gang, being part of a band, that's always fascinated me.
Asked in a interview with U.
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