Lars Ulrich

So if nobody is paying for music, you think only the record companies suffer?
Yes, and it's already happened. Almost nobody I've ever come across recently says they pay for music. Lots of folks go to youtube, or other similar, some still file-share, lots make copies of other's music collection. I'm talking about actual music lovers buying good stuff, not the crap pop music that the record industry still pushes on the masses. The best I can find is a few folks who buy used records and cds, and the bands get nothing from that.

Things have changed. Bands today can do best by getting good deals on the shows they play, selling merch, and promoting their music as their service, rather than trying hard to sell something that is basically an infinite resource that costs almost nothing to re-produce.

Visual artists don't make money when people take in their work online, or appreciate it in a gallery. But they still do those things, because that's how they promote themselves in an era where digital copies of things are stupidly easy to make, and the reality is that you're not taking anything physical from anyone.

Just because someone says "stealing as wrong" doesn't mean they're saying "record companies rule". The industry is corrupt and terrible, but stealing the music doesn't seem to have hurt them much. Artists, on the other hand ...
Stealing is wrong, but I think the term is being mis-appropriated here. Making a copy of something non-physical is just not the same thing as taking something away from another so they no longer have it. The fact is nobody really gives a rats ass about anything physical like CDs; and only the ultra-in crowd is involved in the recent vinyl renaissance.

Lars can be a douche all he wants, he can certainly afford it. Forgive me if I don't listen to rich douchebags go on about how much money we owe them for listening to their music.
 
Stealing is wrong, but I think the term is being mis-appropriated here. Making a copy of something non-physical is just not the same thing as taking something away from another so they no longer have it.

+1

Theft requires deprivity and is a crime. Violation of copyright is a civil tort and involves the circumvention of a government granted monopoly. The other term they misappropriate is "piracy", which involves maritime law and is a truly serious offense punishable by death.

They're all bad, but need to be addressed separately despite industry lobbyists attempts to confound the issues.

Just be glad there are no "methods" patents for making music.... yet.
 
+1

Theft requires deprivity and is a crime. Violation of copyright is a civil tort and involves the circumvention of a government granted monopoly. The other term they misappropriate is "piracy", which involves maritime law and is a truly serious offense punishable by death.

They're all bad, but need to be addressed separately despite industry lobbyists attempts to confound the issues.

Just be glad there are no "methods" patents for making music.... yet.

The problem I have with this type of pedantry is that it doesn't scale. We're moving towards a society where physical copies are the exception, rather than the rule. So if we maintain the idea of "it is only theft if I physically deprive you of it", it becomes more difficult to defend your electronic property.

If I write an e-book and you steal a copy, that's just as much theft in my mind as you taking a hardback copy off a shelf. We can argue legal terms all day, but that's why one of the first things teachers tell aspiring lawyers is "you're here to learn law, not justice".
 
it becomes more difficult to defend your electronic property.

If I write an e-book and you steal a copy, that's just as much theft in my mind as you taking a hardback copy off a shelf.

The first thing I want to clear up is that it is not "property". Property is a very specific thing in law, and comes with a number of rights that copyright does not include. You don't own the music. Even that music which you have written is not your property. You own the media (masters) and have an exclusive right to make copies and distribute them. "Intellectual property" is another term misappropriated by industry lobbyists that attempts to confound issues involving copyrights, patents, trade marks, and trade secrets... each of which has their own set of laws. None of which is even remotely related to property law.

I understand that violating copyright is considered immoral, in the same way that theft is immoral, and I'm in complete agreement that artists should be compensated for their work. My focus is on trying to figure out (from a technological standpoint) how it's all going to work in the future.

We're in a position where entire record company catalogs exist on Freenet. A little searching even yields masters for a number of albums. There is nothing that can be done from a technological standpoint to remedy that. You can literally upload/download/listen to any song, any time, unencumbered, without fear or consequence, tracking, or liability.

We need to figure out how professionals are going to get paid before darknets become engrained in popular culture, before the industry takes it from us again, and before teenagers start going to jail for for the crime of listening to our songs.
 
He is one of the many drummers to inspire and my setup is like his late '80s anyway even down to the brand of drums.

The first 4 albums to Lars was him trying to compete with the rest like Benante, Lombardo etc. Having Cliff in the band would properly epxlain that as he was the musical culprit who kept practise up every day.

By the end of the Justice tour he was burned out by the progresive playing the last 9 years had made him as far as drummer.

From technical to love for Phil Rud of AC/DC and simple groove oriented playing.

He also got bored of playing the same parts over and over on tour. Metallica never really changed the set list to much and Lars would update the parts.

In the studio the skills did not match what they wanted so cut and page to get the drums right. For Justice they could have saved 1 month in recording according to Flemming Rasmussen.

Lars is not a born musician just happened to be in Metallica and boom it took of success wise faster than they could tire their shoes.

So Lars the drummer is half a joke really but he did set the bar of what he able to play and that earns my respect.
 
Lars gets the hate, because he deserves it.

-Lars started off a ground breaking band, a great metal band and his playing WAS GOOD back in the day. I saw numerous Metallica gigs and he pulled off the songs damn good. He nailed the complicated stuff on ...And Justice with no issue.

Then they got rich. No problem here. Rich is good. But for some, rich means you lose perspective. Lars became an art dealer, and enjoyed spending his vast millions on pomp and sow. But Lars still had a job.

I can't say the studio drumming on recent records is bad, because Death Magnetic is good drumming, but his live performances are simply brutal beyond belief. He literally looks like a guy that either

A-Just making payroll. Gotta do this gig
B-Isn't sure how the song goes, and sorta makes it up as he goes along

He is awful. Inconsistent tempo, drum roll fills that are placed haphazardly in the songs, most of the songs simply NOT PLAYED accurately. These are songs HE FREAKING WROTE.

if you cant even play For Whom the Bell Tolls correct (a majestically simple song) then you have no hope. Jason Newstead's comments upon leaving Metallica should also shed a bit more light on it when he inferred/implied that Lars had not kept up with his drumming craft.

The level of improvement from the simple/fast stuff on Kill Em All to the nearly progressive tinged opus ...And Justice For All was the work of a kid who worked his ass off to become a good drummer. The trajectory SINCE then has been gross and embarrassing.
 
The level of improvement from the simple/fast stuff on Kill Em All to the nearly progressive tinged opus ...And Justice For All was the work of a kid who worked his ass off to become a good drummer. The trajectory SINCE then has been gross and embarrassing.
I found him annoying and sloppy then, too. But he was a kid, and it was cool to be reckless abandon. Metallica was never a very polished or pristine act so his drumming fit the bill.
 
I found him annoying and sloppy then, too. But he was a kid, and it was cool to be reckless abandon. Metallica was never a very polished or pristine act so his drumming fit the bill.

To say that Metallica is not a polished or pristine band is over reaching. I just watched their s&m performance and was really impressed with the bands abilities. Hetfields vocals and Ulrich's drumming were spectacular. I think age and infirmities are catching up with Lars. I noticed his weight fluctuates and he does not seems healthy most often. It will catch up to all of us, trust me😀
 
To say that Metallica is not a polished or pristine band is over reaching. I just watched their s&m performance and was really impressed with the bands abilities. Hetfields vocals and Ulrich's drumming were spectacular. I think age and infirmities are catching up with Lars. I noticed his weight fluctuates and he does not seems healthy most often. It will catch up to all of us, trust me��

Well, they tried to become more mainstream and "clean" sounding around the time of the black album...but honestly, I don't even bother talking about anything Metallica beyond 1990 or so, it's like two different bands. Metallica with Cliff Burton was not polished at all, in fact they weren't far off from Motorhead in their early years from 1981 to 1984-85 or so.

Lars is not a "clean" drummer...he was a better fit to the more garage-band reckless, sloppy early days.
 
The way I see Lars is that he is to me for Metal what Ringo Starr was to the Beatles and rock music past his emergence.

That may be sacrilege to some but Lars was never a conventional drummer by any sense. His technique was weird and to a me a little mystical - he leads with his left foot and accents the crash in strange places. There are things I can't do as they just don't feel organic. Any drummer who do something so unnatural but make it sound good deserves kudos.

I don't care that things are a little sloppy these days. I know that I really should but I listen to so many super tight drummers that sometimes it is nice to have that contrast.

To sum it up he is respected by professionals, but bashed by keyboard warriors who won't achieve 1% of what he has ever achieved.
 
His technique was weird and to a me a little mystical - he leads with his left foot and accents the crash in strange places. There are things I can't do as they just don't feel organic. Any drummer who do something so unnatural but make it sound good deserves kudos.

I agree, his accents and fills are weird. When covering a song they are hard for me to anticipate, but I like it. Maybe not the most technical drummer, but right for Metallica. Maybe more lazy now than 20 years ago, but it is his band.
 
Lars does the job. He co-invented thrash metal. When Metallica first came out, they changed everything. That just can't be ignored. A lot of rock drummers have a really good sense of other genres, and bring an awful lot of technique to the table. That's not Lars. But he does what Metallica needs.

It's kind of easy to hate on Lars, but people also used to hate on Ringo. They were both the right men for the job.
 
I personally think Larz is a talented drummer. Just jump in and try to play some of the songs on Death Magnetic like "That was Just Your Life," The End of the Line," "Cyanide" etc..... They may sound simple, but there is some complicated stuff in that album. He is the first drummer to ever really inspire me to play and now we have the likes of Thomas Lang, Dave Grohl, Nick DiVirgilio, and Portnoy. People on here were saying that Dave Grohl wasnt very good either. That made me spit Monster out my nose!
 
I personally think Larz is a talented drummer. Just jump in and try to play some of the songs on Death Magnetic like "That was Just Your Life," The End of the Line," "Cyanide" etc..... They may sound simple, but there is some complicated stuff in that album. He is the first drummer to ever really inspire me to play and now we have the likes of Thomas Lang, Dave Grohl, Nick DiVirgilio, and Portnoy. People on here were saying that Dave Grohl wasnt very good either. That made me spit Monster out my nose!

Mr Grohl is another story altogether but for anyone to say he is crap...huh?? Got more session recordings than I'll ever have.

Lars was one of the first drummers I took notice of and I respect him. I don't know if he is an influence, my main influences are local people rather than famous drummers but as a drummer he stood out. 'I Disappear' was the very first metallica song I heard when I was 14 or 15 and I always loved the way he doubled up against James verse riff with his foot. So simple but just effective. Give Joey Jordison that type of song and he would overplay it to hell like he did at Download
 
Mr Grohl is another story altogether but for anyone to say he is crap...huh?? Got more session recordings than I'll ever have.

Lars was one of the first drummers I took notice of and I respect him. I don't know if he is an influence, my main influences are local people rather than famous drummers but as a drummer he stood out. 'I Disappear' was the very first metallica song I heard when I was 14 or 15 and I always loved the way he doubled up against James verse riff with his foot. So simple but just effective. Give Joey Jordison that type of song and he would overplay it to hell like he did at Download

I guess in a nutshell that what I was trying to say. Just because a drummer doesnt overplay, doesnt mean his isnt a damn fine drummer. Grohl and Ulrich are both awesome at what they do and very inspiring at the same time.
 
In my opinion, a drummer is "good" if and only if he or she keeps a solid meter. That's the only criterion for being a "good" drummer in my book, but I am just one guy with an insignificant opinion. I think something like this is very subjective and many people will disagree with me, but I enjoy reading about what others think.
 
Lars among other thrash metal drummers inspired me to play when I first started. I liked him because I could play the beats pretty early on. And I also think he wrote to the music really well.

What I think happened with Metallica was that Cliff Burton passed away. I think he was a big part of the soul of the band. That is why everything after Justice for all was a very pale reflection of what Metallica used to be. I know Cliff died before Justice For All, but there was still a lot of him on that record. Great bands seem to have a almost magical combination of personalities and if you remove one it is rare to go on to match or exceed the previous success.

Bob Rock killed Metallica on the Black Album for me but maybe they were already dead.
 
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