Why does everyone make fun of Lars?

Mastiff

Senior Member
I've been working on Master of Puppets and One recently, and the drum parts are cool. While they aren't full of chops, I wouldn't call them easy by any means, at least not for me. Lots of changes, seldom a groove to relax into, etc. People pay a lot of lip service to playing for the music, and it seems to me that that's exactly what he does in these songs.
 
I've always liked Lars' parts. He gets into the pocket and likes to move it around a bit. It's not like one beat for eight measures, its eight slightly varied versions of the same beat. I always thought that was cool.

I learned the first 5 albums at one point in my younger life. Blackened was probably my biggest challenge. Song is long and takes a journey, that's for sure.

As for all the ridicule, I dunno. Maybe it has something more to do with his talking than playing.
 
For me it's the fact that he's never played Dyers Eve, ever and still released it on Justice. They do a limp along version live now, but it's so dumbed down it may as well be another song.
I think it also has to do with Napster and his general a$$-hatness as a person.
To me Metallica and Slipknot are metal with training wheels. A good place to get your toes wet, but there's better things if you look deeper.
 
I've always liked Lars' parts. He gets into the pocket and likes to move it around a bit. It's not like one beat for eight measures, its eight slightly varied versions of the same beat. I always thought that was cool.

I learned the first 5 albums at one point in my younger life. Blackened was probably my biggest challenge. Song is long and takes a journey, that's for sure.

same here, and on bass too. On drums, Damage Inc. was the biggest challenge for me...on bass it was The Four Horseman...my high school band must have played every song on Ride and Master at least once at shows

As for all the ridicule, I dunno. Maybe it has something more to do with his talking than playing.

definitely more for his mouth I think...
 
Envy could be a big motivator for Lars haters. A lot of guys might think they can do a better job in his spot, a laughable fantasy, as removing Lars from Metallica would be similar to changing the band's name. Few metal drummers have achieved more than Lars, and the dude can play -- end of discussion. I've never understood the ridicule directed toward his snare sound on the "St. Anger" project. Yes, it's unconventional and harsh in places, but the complete meltdown so many drummers experienced upon the album's release was utterly ludicrous. Lars chose that snare sound for a reason. If you don't like it, don't mimic it. Just get over it and move along.

I'm not a Lars fan per se, as metal isn't my genre, but I do respect his accomplishments.
 
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Lars was my biggest influence when I was starting out. I grew up on 'Tallica, have all of their records up to reload and listen to them regular.

Was part of the Metallica club as a kid and listened to mandatory Metallica every night at nine on Rock 101.

I still think he's cool. His brief podcast thing on Apple music, to their YouTube videos and such. He's someone I'd love to have a beer with and shoot the breeze.

My favorite all time record is Master and I think the break part in Disposable Heroes is one of the coolest drum riff he has. Whole CD is prog worthy, same with Justice.

Totally pioneered a pathway to every metal out there. They can deny it if they want but any band since them in metal has them as an influence.
 
Envy could be a big motivator for Lars haters. A lot of guys might think they can do a better job is in spot, a laughable fantasy, as removing Lars from Metallica would be similar to changing the band's name. Few metal drummers have achieved more than Lars, and the dude can play -- end of discussion. I've never understood the ridicule directed toward his snare sound on the "St. Anger" project. Yes, it's unconventional and harsh in places, but the complete meltdown so many drummers experienced upon the album's release was utterly ludicrous. Lars chose that snare sound for a reason. If you don't like it, don't mimic it. Just get over it and move along.

I'm not a Lars fan per se, as metal isn't my genre, but I do respect his accomplishments.

totally agree...but I was a Lars fan - yes, I am one of "those guys" that can't stand the stuff after the Black Album. I honestly have never heard St. Anger, so I can't comment on the snare sound
 
Lars was my biggest influence when I was starting out. I grew up on 'Tallica, have all of their records up to reload and listen to them regular.

Was part of the Metallica club as a kid and listened to mandatory Metallica every night at nine on Rock 101.

I still think he's cool. His brief podcast thing on Apple music, to their YouTube videos and such. He's someone I'd love to have a beer with and shoot the breeze.

My favorite all time record is Master and I think the break part in Disposable Heroes is one of the coolest drum riff he has. Whole CD is prog worthy, same with Justice.

Totally pioneered a pathway to every metal out there. They can deny it if they want but any band since them in metal has them as an influence.

funny how on both Ride, and Master, my most favorite songs were the first song on the second side of the tape: Trapped Under Ice and Disposable Heroes...great songs!! Great memories of that early era for me as well!!
 
Fight Fire With Fire is my favorite Metallica song. I would love to hear a marching band play that. That opening riff after the acoustic part would sound awesome on horns.

I am on it....

we have a drum cheer based on the beginning of Eye Of The Beholder that I wrote years ago...it is a fan favorite at our football games...complete with the fade in, and with a mock mosh pit and everything!!
 
Metallica had more crossover success than any other thrash metal band (any metal band ever?) which opens all of the members up to more criticism than their peers. Lars also has specific licks that resurface again and again throughout his career and I think musicians pick on him for that.
 
funny how on both Ride, and Master, my most favorite songs were the first song on the second side of the tape: Trapped Under Ice and Disposable Heroes...great songs!! Great memories of that early era for me as well!!
Trapped is such a killer track. Exhumed covers it and its brutal as hell.

I always joked about doing a thrash band with old Metallica riffs with just straight blast beats and d beats.

Check out the exhumed cover, and that whole cover album they do. Pretty decent cover of no quarter. If you like things sludgey.
 
For me it's the fact that he's never played Dyers Eve, ever and still released it on Justice. They do a limp along version live now, but it's so dumbed down it may as well be another song.
I think it also has to do with Napster and his general a$$-hatness as a person.
To me Metallica and Slipknot are metal with training wheels. A good place to get your toes wet, but there's better things if you look deeper.

funny how I thank Metallica for opening the door for more underground stuff back in the day. I first heard Ride in fall of 84...and also Anthrax for the first time that same day.... Those guys led me to all of the Bay Area thrash, and LA thrash...the first wave, as well as the NYHC and thrash scenes. Had already been into DC Straight Edge punk...that stuff all led me to the first wave of Scandinavian Black metal, and Tampa Death metal. which led me down the road to other "Extreme" underground stuff
 
funny how I thank Metallica for opening the door for more underground stuff back in the day. I first heard Ride in fall of 84...and also Anthrax for the first time that same day.... Those guys led me to all of the Bay Area thrash, and LA thrash...the first wave, as well as the NYHC and thrash scenes. Had already been into DC Straight Edge punk...that stuff all led me to the first wave of Scandinavian Black metal, and Tampa Death metal. which led me down the road to other "Extreme" underground stuff
I swear you read my mind. Being from the east coast Anthrax was my second favorite, mainly because of the more hardcore influence that resonated with me.
 
I think the reasons people discredit Lars, is that after the Justice Album, He changed his style and became sloppy, playing out of time more often than not, and being unable or unwilling to play his previous Drum Tracks as they were recorded, live. Added to that, His Ego is enormous and most of the time is off putting. That’s How I see It anyways. Plus he’s a hypocrite. He was the one that said they’d never do videos, then the Video for One came out. He and the band were big proponents of cassette tape sharing to get them known at the very start of Metallica, and then He spearheaded the Napster lawsuit.
 
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I swear you read my mind. Being from the east coast Anthrax was my second favorite, mainly because of the more hardcore influence that resonated with me.

hell yeah! I love Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, SOD
 
His achievements of over 30 years ago are always quoted but I still think he’s pretty good in the studio to this day and I like his parts on the last two albums. He continues to come up with interesting patterns where a lot of drummers would have stuck with a conventional approach.

He’s always struck me first and foremost as band leader/rockstar with drumming secondary hence why live performances became a bit iffy once the megabucks started rolling in and possibly interest/focus in drums waned. However without his drive and ambition, Metallica would be half the band they are now. You need that swagger and arrogance in a band leader if you’re going to make it. It’s called personality whether you like it or not. How many lead singers have you met over the years who are arrogant arses but you know you’re absolutely nothing without them?
To your question, it’s jealousy pure and simple. Show me one aspiring rock drummer would not want to in Lars Ulrich’s shoes on concert day.
 
funny how I thank Metallica for opening the door for more underground stuff back in the day. I first heard Ride in fall of 84...and also Anthrax for the first time that same day.... Those guys led me to all of the Bay Area thrash, and LA thrash...the first wave, as well as the NYHC and thrash scenes. Had already been into DC Straight Edge punk...that stuff all led me to the first wave of Scandinavian Black metal, and Tampa Death metal. which led me down the road to other "Extreme" underground stuff

Exactly! I came from hard-core punk and went towards metal after I started playing drums. Metallica was where I got my toes wet and then jumped in and went to death/extreme metal. It's people who stop there and then say they are the end all be all of metal that don't have their eyes/ears open regarding whats going on the genre.

Regarding Dyers Eve, it's not a loop. They recorded the various parts and then spliced it all together. He said so in a MD interview in the late 90's/early 2000's. IIRC he said he couldn't do the cymbal catches/fills or make the changes from one part to another.
 
I think of them as similar, but opposite of Chuck Norris jokes. I've heard complaints that he simplified songs live and other stuff. But I dunno... I was never a Metallica fan. For me it was Slayer, Maiden, and Sepultura before I got into the more extreme stuff.

The local drummers around here always make jokes like "man that drummer was sloppy" to which another responds "but he was still better than Lars" all in good fun though. Most of them are Metallica fans.
 
He was no joke early on. But beginning with the "Black album" he has let his chops go. I have always tried not to rag on him though.The Lars bashing is very childish; adults engaging in that stuff seems weird, and being cruel to people is wrong whether it's face to face or in their absence.
 
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