While I absolutely loved seeing Metallica perform two nights in a row at Orion a few weeks ago (you can see our video report here), more than one person I know questioned Lars' drumming ability, specifically when it came to the double-bass parts in songs like "One." While Lars is the reason many drummers got into metal but those same drummers turn around and say the dude can't cut it anymore. You know what, though? Lars may agree with them. When asked in a recent DRUM magazine interview about his drumming nowadays, Lars joked (I think) that he's regressed. Here's the full quote:
"I usually feel like I've regressed. [laughs] I'm like, 'Why can't I do that anymore?' You know, when I heard these songs [on the Beyond Magnetic EP] a couple of months ago, I thought that it sounded really exciting. I thought there was a really good, lively vibe — it's a bunch of guys just playing together, and it sounded really full of energy and spunk and liveliness. And that was kind of the whole thing on the Death Magnetic sessions was to try to keep all that energy as preserved as possible. The one thing I'm really proud of with the 'Death Magnetic' album is just how fucking lively it sounds. How it doesn't sound careful, it doesn't sound stale. It doesn't sound, kind of, too cerebral — it's just physical. It's just lively and full of spunk and full of people that are playing music with each other, in a room, you know? That was kind of what we were going for with 'Lulu' [the recent METALLICA/Lou Reed collaboration]."
His feeling on modern thrash drummers:
Those guys [the new crop of speed-metal drummers], I think they do something that’s so … that’s not the stuff that I do. Not just not what I do but also not what I’m interested in doing. Their stuff is so technical, and I totally respect it, I admire it, but I’m much more interested in kind of more traditional things, like songwriting and groove and attitude and vibe.
Maybe Lars should talk to Dave Lombardo again about drumming. Read the whole interview at DRUM magazine.
