Lars Ulrich

A J said:
Color me a "Lars Fan." His drumming serves his band perfectly.
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Younger Lars influenced me a lot. Most other late 80s thrash drummers were bashing away in very predictable fashion. His style was very inventive and fresh.
Those creatively placed crash accents, the empty space where anyone else in his genre would have mindlessly played a kick or snare . . . . . those things made an impression on me, even as a guitar player back then, and they stuck with me. There's undeniable Lars in my own drumming. Hell, there's Lars in my metal guitar riffs.
 
People that bash Lars really weren’t around or weren’t paying attention in the 80s when he essentially set the template for metal drumming and was “the guy.”

The string of amazing metal records Metallica put out in the 1980s where Lars’ contributions as a drummer, arranger and band member were on full display solidify his place in the metal echelon.

No Lars = no Metallica. What else needs to be said?
 
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Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
honestly, back in the day, I could not get past Charlie Benante, Gar Samulesson and Dave Lombardo to notice Lars...I loved the first 4 Metallica albums, but Lars was always just adequate compared to many of the other guys at the time...
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Those guys are better drummers than Lars but Lars' drumming was very creative and remarkably effective. That's what I give him credit for, not his technical ability. Frankly, if he wasn't very good but still came up with those drum parts, that's even more phenomenal. Those other drummers, while faster and tighter, were predictable. There's nothing any of them played that made me think "I wish I would have thought of that", or "where did that come from?" (Actually Lombardo has a couple of times)
 
bud7h4 said:
Those guys are better drummers than Lars but Lars' drumming was very creative and remarkably effective. That's what I give him credit for, not his technical ability. Frankly, if he wasn't very good but still came up with those drum parts, that's even more phenomenal. Those other drummers, while faster and tighter, were predictable. There's nothing any of them played that made me think "I wish I would have thought of that", or "where did that come from?" (Actually Lombardo has a couple of times)
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Not sure about calling a Jazz fusion guy 'predictable'.
 
bud7h4 said:
Those guys are better drummers than Lars but Lars' drumming was very creative and remarkably effective. That's what I give him credit for, not his technical ability. Frankly, if he wasn't very good but still came up with those drum parts, that's even more phenomenal. Those other drummers, while faster and tighter, were predictable. There's nothing any of them played that made me think "I wish I would have thought of that", or "where did that come from?" (Actually Lombardo has a couple of time
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while I definitely agree with you about his drum part writing on the first 3 albums, I don't think Lars' drumming on Master is any more/less effective than Benante on Among The Living, or Gar on Peace Sells...and for me it really has nothing to do with speed and technicality in that aspect....the difference for me is that Benante and Gar were able to replicate live better, at least from what I saw. I feel like James and Cliff/Newstead were actually "driving the bus", and Lars was always sort of out on his own - which is fine - but sometimes that led to ticks and mistakes that only got recovered b/c of those two actually driving
 
MrPockets said:
Not sure about calling a Jazz fusion guy 'predictable'.
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Considering Mustaine wrote an entire album (Peace Sells) of some of the best metal riffs ever recorded, the drumming was unfortunate. It's not bad, not at all. But those songs - those riffs - deserve better. I agree with you, jazz fusion experience commonly makes one a noticeably creative metal drummer, but the drumming on Peace Sells is boring compared to the guitar work.
If Lars had played on Peace Sells - on that album in particular - it would have been epic.

Edit: Nevertheless, I still like Peace Sells more than anything Metallica did, as far as entire albums.
 
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bud7h4 said:
Considering Mustaine wrote an entire album (Peace Sells) of some of the best metal riffs ever recorded, the drumming was unfortunate. It's not bad, not at all. But those songs - those riffs - deserve better. I agree with you, jazz fusion experience commonly makes one a noticeably creative metal drummer, but the drumming on Peace Sells is boring compared to the guitar work.
If Lars had played on Peace Sells - on that album in particular - it would have been epic.

Edit: Nevertheless, I still like Peace Sells more than anything Metallica did, as far as entire albums.
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I think Dave wanted a solid foundation to play on top of and not some guy doing weird grooves. Look at his praise of Drover.
 
MrPockets said:
I think Dave wanted a solid foundation to play on top of and not some guy doing weird grooves. Look at his praise of Drover.
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Calling Lars' grooves weird is like calling Dave's riffs weird.
 
IEM: Check Only James' guitar in them: Check Get mad recognition for being mediocre: Check

Act like pompous, entitled jerk: Definite Check.
The Lars path to stardom.
 
Defender said:
I think the hate for Lars is two-fold and neither has anything to do with his drumming ability.

1) Like was stated above, Lars has somehow always came off as a completely, arrogant, self centered moron whenever he seems to open his mouth.

2) Lars was and still is a key player against music piracy and for a lot of people it just burns into their skulls exactly how you can be complaining about something when you literally have millions of dollars. Even though he's totally in his right, he just comes off as super greedy to the average person when the subject of piracy comes up.

And that's just my 2 cents. But I really think those 2 things are why some people don't like him. In my opinion, his drumming fits in exceptionally well with the music he's playing. He plays enough to keep drummers interested, but not enough to be overbearing to the music itself.

Peace, Defender
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I think you nailed it.

I used to carpool with a guy who was a huge Metallica fan, and I ended up hearing all their stuff to that point for the first time. He's a competent drummer. I've no idea if he is innovative or cutting edge as metal isn't my thing. He didn't blow me away or really catch my interest the way other metal drummers I was exposed to did.
 
jimb said:
Careful....
This whole issue feeds into what is the drummer for. Do the Stones need a "great" technical drummer? of course not, same with AC DC. The Lars thing? I bet 95% of the audience don't even notice.
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Jeff Beck was asked to join the Stones.
Turned it down because they were too sloppy as a band.
Ron Wood was the best musician in that band and took the money and ran.
Jeff noted it would have been nice financially ,but artistically it just wasn't a good fit.
 
pgm554 said:
Jeff Beck was asked to join the Stones.
Turned it down because they were too sloppy as a band.
Ron Wood was the best musician in that band and took the money and ran.
Jeff noted it would have been nice financially ,but artistically it just wasn't a good fit.
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there is a small minority of us musicians who do not define "success" and happiness as monetary wealth ...

I am proudly one of them
 
Did Lars just pull out the old White Tama beast kit (Black album), for the new song? - songs filmclip? Lux AEterna.

 
I-P said:
Did Lars just pull out the old White Tama beast kit (Black album), for the new song? - songs filmclip? Lux AEterna.

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Artstar II

Metallica released new single, Lux Aeterna. In te video I saw Lars playing famous black and white Tama Artstar II. Maybe he'll play them again on this new album tour. I think that Artstar that he is playing doesn't have the power toms. Maybe Tama made them again? Maybe they are starting to sell...
www.drummerworld.com
 
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Not trying to be a hater becasue i don't really care about metallica either way, but I'll be amazed if he can play that song live. When I saw him at Glastonbury he was abysmal.
 
Al Strange said:
This deffo sounds like old Lars, maybe he’s been slamming it in the practice room? :unsure:
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Sounds a lot like their very first album, just a little more commercial.
 
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