TRUE or FALSE: Lars Ulrich of Metallica is a terrible drummer

DNFTT

i mean the dude played on lulu, he's a great drummer in my book

― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 March 2015 22:30 (Yesterday) Permalink

Also, as a friend of mine once said, "Lars is a terrible drummer, but he's the best possible drummer for Metallica"

chap otm. I also learned to play drums (and more importantly memorize arrangements and think about how everything interlocked) from Lars.

It's funny that this thread popped up, I've been listening to AJFA all week (as I do at least once or twice a year) and I still love it as much as ever. I wouldn't want it to sound any different either, the tight & mechanized drum sound is perfect for his approach on that record.

For me his true talent lies in his phrasing and the parts he makes up. They're so crucial to the song...there are lots of parts on AJFA where the same riff acts as interlude, verse, and sometimes even chors, and the only differentiator (besides the vocal) is the drum part. His parts are so hooky, and there are so many weird little fills and variations in the middle of the phrases that I don't hear other metal drummers do.

I don't really give a fuck if he can play it live or not (and he does rush hilariously live, but whatever). He came up with genius parts and recorded them perfectly...even if the sections were cut together with a million tape splices, he still played each part as he wanted it to be played (no Pro Tools magic).

I also think I relate to him (then & now) as a drummer whose head is better than his hands. He'd probably be a great electronic musician or beatmaker if he was born thirty years later.

So sounds like most of us are more or less saying the same thing: he's not a great technical drummer but suits the music.

Anyway, for those who'd like the idea of a Metallica with a better drummer (and guitar players), you have Megadeth "Rust In Peace" etc.

I used to have lengthy debates with this pretentious Megadeth fan in the 90s who seemed to treat music as a competition who constantly referred to the band's musicianship as proof of their superiority. which was kind of missing the point (not just of Metallica, but the reason that Megadeth was good).

I mean I like the little sloppy things Metallica does live like intentionally rushing the beats between chord changes in the chorus of Creeping Death. the only thing I dislike about Metallica live is how over the years they've gotten bored and messed with arrangements in ways that don't help. not at all against adding flourishes, but there's one lead riff Kirk added over the riff prior to the drum breakdown in "One" in the mid-90s that hurts more than it helps and I wish he would retire it...takes me out of the moment.

thankfully James quit doing the "I'm bored so I'm going to fuck around" mentality vocally speaking. Cunning STunts DVD is unwatchable to me because he occasionally adds goofy cartoonish voices (Sad But True), ridiculous exaggerated enunciation (even for him) on "Nothing Else Matters", etc. that one Mexico DVD from 2009, there are moments he yells where he almost sounds like the pre-yodel James.

Remember when Megadeth used to refer to themselves as a "State of the Art Speed Metal Band"?

Anyway, for those who'd like the idea of a Metallica with a better drummer (and guitar players), you have Megadeth "Rust In Peace" etc.

― Siegbran

But with worse songwriting, sadly...

Never spent much time on Metallica, but greatly enjoying this thread for its nuanced Drummer As Important Member Of Rock Band vs. Drummer As Chops Monster discussion.

This got me thinking, it would be fucking awesome to see another Big 4 tour where they each do a full set of each others songs. Megadeth doing Bring The Noise? Metallica doing Raining Blood? Slayer doing Master Of Puppets? Anthrax doing Symphony Of Destruction? Please take my money!

you can always listen to stone among many other cool bands inspired by metallica. their drummer was cool. metallica famously supposedly stole their cool riff. and then the drummer ended up in amorphis? i think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaw90R2gHoc

siegbran, don't give them any ideas! i'd settle for some cool new music that i would actually want to listen to.

i feel like i can listen to death people for decades, but thrashers not so much. i'm always happy to hear a new immolation record.

Immolation are fucking godhead

Metallica w Dave Lombardo would be so gross

"I seem to remember a recent article about how the technical-facility arms race in metal drumming has led to some drummers using drum machines on stage, but trying to hide it, and the controversy/backlash being analogous to doping/PEDs in sports."

This happens a ton in the studio now with metal production where you get producers doing microscopic edits all over metal drumming by shifting hits around next to a metronome grid. People spend hours upon hours editing that stuff.

So I guess Ministry's "Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" was indeed truly ahead of its time. Because the crazy drum programming on that thing was pretty much unreplicable, even with two drummers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLCZhQX_Fm0

We've come full circle back to industrial.

i heard that Flo Mounier just records himself hitting each piece of his kit once and the producer uses one of those radio shack sampling keyboards to fill in the rest

Isn't that what they did with Tomas Haake from Meshuggah? The Drumkit From Hell software program was all built out of individual Haake hits.

there's one lead riff Kirk added in the mid-90s that hurts more than it helps and I wish he would retire it...takes me out of the moment.

This happens a ton in the studio now with metal production where you get producers doing microscopic edits all over metal drumming by shifting hits around next to a metronome grid. People spend hours upon hours editing that stuff.

― earlnash, Sunday, March 29, 2015 11:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

don't think there's any genre where moving all beats over to snap to grid isn't now the norm

having a nightmare now of going to see some tech metal band and having the drummer only be able to do kick+snare, kick+snare and audience starts booing

This happens a ton in the studio now with metal production where you get producers doing microscopic edits all over metal drumming by shifting hits around next to a metronome grid. People spend hours upon hours editing that stuff.

― earlnash, Sunday, 29 March 2015 23:04 (Yesterday) Permalink

A relative of mine was in a pro-style metal band, who worked with a "name" producer (I feel like he had done stuff with Korn or someone), they spent three weeks and untold amounts of money working on their album. The entire first week was getting drum sounds and recording each individual drum, uploading it into a computer and assembling the drum beats that way.

The drummer who played on the record was a fill-in guy. After the band got home and started looking for a new drummer they were dismayed to find out that no one could play any of the songs as they had been created in the computer. They spent a few frustrating months of not being able to get a replacement they eventually broke up and I don't think the album ever actually came out.

LOL this thread is a great window into the insanity of modern metal.

thankfully James quit doing the "I'm bored so I'm going to fuck around" mentality vocally speaking

you will die

OHHHHHH

when i sayyy

WATCH ME NOW

love dizazter. this is from this year. impiety are from singapore but dizazter is from australia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-X2kNoPFSc

Is the "No samples, no triggers" Bandcamp disclaimer 2015's answer to the "NO SYNTHS" LP shrink wrap sticker, or what?

Once you start down the adjusting-drum-hits-individually, forever will it dominate your destiny.

Posting this video to this thread because the drummer rules. Thanks to scott seward for posting it somewhere else!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaOLR9N0WVM

yeah!

great beat. btw you guys might enjoy this thread:
Drum geek sick chops youtube thread

All Che-a's YouTube videos are from 2010-2011; I wonder what happened to them? I bet they have regular jobs now.

you can always listen to stone among many other cool bands inspired by metallica. their drummer was cool. metallica famously supposedly stole their cool riff. and then the drummer ended up in amorphis? i think?

Read that as "the drummer ended up in animorphs"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/Animorphs_32_The_Separation.jpg

Once you start down the adjusting-drum-hits-individually, forever will it dominate your destiny.

http://i.usatoday.net/life/_photos/2011/09/11/More-Seeds-We-Sow-for-Lindsey-Buckingham-4BCGU0G-x-large.jpg
"Tell me about it."

I've heard that there was one Fleetwood Mac song where Mick decided he had to have his drums recorded with ribbon mics - very expensive, very sensitive, very easily damaged microphones usually used for vocals - and they blew out a bunch of them while recording his drum parts in multiple takes.

lol most engineers I know are hesitant to let singers at a ribbon mic, you can blow those things out easy and indeed they are massively expensive

I heard that Tony Cohen set out to record the Birthday party's Junkyard with contact mics attached to the interior of the drumkit which kept on blowing.

Reminds me of the story in the making of Never Mind The Bollocks video where they talk about finally getting a real cheap mic for Johnny Rotten so he could kind of throw it around and give the required performance.

Also, for a while thought that picture of Lindsey Buckingham was Jojo Mayer for some reason.

Hmmm.

http://i.imgur.com/GLTmA28.jpg

I've heard that there was one Fleetwood Mac song where Mick decided he had to have his drums recorded with ribbon mics - very expensive, very sensitive, very easily damaged microphones usually used for vocals - and they blew out a bunch of them while recording his drum parts in multiple takes.

― ^^^ NOT METAL (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, April 2, 2015 4:17 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's a great anecdote about mick and lindsay doing "what makes you think you're the one?" off tusk, and they are at the studio by themselves one night and they actually take apart a handheld cassette recorder and put the mic from that inside the snare drum to get that sound (the whole unsaid subtext to the anecdote being "we were insanely coked up")

but yeah i almost wish there was a special ILM metal thread for "metal records that don't sound like shit" because i would check them out no matter what genre

also lars 4 ever #! lars fan 4 life! lars ulrich fan club!

The Ringo of metal imo. Team Lars 4 Life

re: this, I don't think Kirk gets enough flack for how badly he occasionally blows this live. like, there's mistakes, and there's him occasionally falling two entire measures behind (as I pointed out upthread), hitting the wrong frets, bending out of tune, or on one 1986 bootleg, actually fucking up the harmonized interlude to Master of Puppets because he started on the wrong fret and couldn't fix it, so he was playing dissonant garbage while James played it correctly.

and then there are the shows where he IS a machine and nails everything. but he's so casual live to the point where he sometimes comes across as not gaf, and yet the knock on Kirk = "he's a lame guitarist in that his lead compositions suck, but he can play technically like a mo'fo!".

anywho, I stand by what I said upthread about Lars, but lord, Kirk has degraded over the years and hides a lot of his mistakes in wah (which he's done for years), but I'm fairly sure they had to fix a lot via overdubs on live recordings for him.

James does seem to have been the glue that held the rickety thing together, but I also think there has to be a reason two of his bandmates remained constant throughout the band's career, the same band that is way more successful and popular than p much all of the bands with "better" drummers/guitarists.

It's amazing how many huge bands have at least one member that really can't play - Kiss, U2, the Stones (Charlie, sue me), I'm sure there's more. I suppose that crap musicians learn to come up with interesting workarounds occasionally, although most people in loser bands are just crap at even that.

yeah that would have gutted me.

course I was 9 at the time so