Lars Ulrich on New Metallica Material: “It’s Not So Bad”
Swell news for people who are actually stoked on the idea of another Metallica album: Lars Ulrich tells Rolling Stone that the band have “close to” twenty songs written for the record.
Not-so-swell news for people who are actually stoked on the idea of another Metallica album: the band’s approach to the making of the record sounds a bit familiar, and not in a reassuring way.
Swell news for people who think the new Metallica album will probably stink and are really just hoping for something that’s at least amusing: the band’s approach to the making of the record sounds a bit familiar, and not in a reassuring way
Says Ulrich:
“In our world, there’s been a distinct difference between the creative phase and the recording phase. With this project, we’re trying to bridge the two a little more organically and not have there be such a great divide between the processes. We want to see if we can bring some of the creative curiosity, the impulsive stuff that happens when you’re first playing a song into the studio.
“You want to tweak it and get it good, but you also want to record it in a way where it doesn’t feel labored over and overthought. We’re trying to figure out where that line is.”
As Metal Injection points out, this sure does sound a LOT like Metallica’s creative process for St. Anger, as was well-documented in Some Kind of Monster. Which is why I say this is bad news for people who really think Metallica have another good record in them, but is good news for the rest of us: if the band goes as far off the ranch as they did with Anger or Lulu, the results will at least be entertaining. I dunno about you, but if Metallica are gonna continue to be but a shadow of their former selves, I’d rather get something that’s both interesting and consistently funny (we’re STILL getting laughs from “You flush it out!” and “I am the table!”) than another bland attempt to recapture their glory days (I’m looking at you, Death Magnetic).
By far the funniest part of the interview, though, comes when Ulrich discovers “Lords of Summer,” the new song Metallica debuted last year:
“I was flipping around on iTunes and somehow ended up looking up Metallica. I heard 30 seconds of ‘Lords of Summer’ on the preview, and I was like, ‘Wow, it actually sounds pretty good.’ I hadn’t remembered it since we played it last, and I was like, ‘It’s not so bad.’”
“It’s not so bad”: the review every artist dreams of.
P.S. “I somehow ended up looking up Metallica”? Gimme a break, dude! You look at your own band on mass media platforms because it gives you an ego boost. No need to try and sugarcoat it… it’s not as uncommon as you think!
