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- Mark Savage
- BBC Music Correspondent
image source, Getty Images
Metallica (LR): Lars Ulrich, Robert Trujillo, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett,
In the credits of Metallica’s third album, Master Of Puppets, the band gleefully thank three of their biggest inspirations: Carlsberg Lager, Absolut Vodka, and Arca Seltzer.
At the time, their philosophy was “face the world and drink it all”. And they left a trail of destruction everywhere they played.
“We used to start drinking when we woke up. We could finish the gig by three o’clock and then drink for eight or nine hours,” drummer Lars Ulrich told The Infamous Monsters in 2003.・He remembered Ob and spoke. Rock tour with Van Halen in 1988.
“There’s a picture of us at the top of Tampa Stadium taking off our pants and it’s flashing everyone. It’s 4pm and we’re already ass drunk.”
“I had a lot of dads, moms, husbands and boyfriends looking for me, so it was a shame to come back to some of those towns later,” frontman James Hetfield said. didn’t know why: “That whole tour was foggy”.
At the time, the band was devastated by the loss of bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident in 1986. They continued to fight, but their grief was buried in substance abuse and dysfunctional relationships.
In 2004, Hetfield finally entered rehab to deal with his addiction. The rest of Metallica are similarly reformed characters.
“The days of getting out of your locker all night and watching the sun rise are a little behind,” Ulrich says over the phone from America.
For his part, the drummer replaced lager and vodka with a more refined addiction: tea.
“I have a teapot and cups right in front of me, within reach,” he laughs.
“I drink mostly Earl Gray tea, but this particular blend has a hint of vanilla. Not only is it delicious, but it keeps me going. I drive people crazy with my crazy energy.” I will let you.”
But Ulrich has always been the beating heart of Metallica.
image source, Tim Sassenti
For the new album, the band chose a palette of yellow and black, the colors of crime scene tapes.
He was the one who ran a newspaper ad in 1981 that read, “Drummer looking for other metal musicians to play with.” He was the one who persuaded his friends to surrender the name Metallica and give it to the group.
When it came to creating Metallica’s 11th album, 72 Seasons, Ulrich did what he always does.
“It’s one of the only things that hasn’t changed in 40 years,” he says. “There’s a lot of riffs and jams and soundchecks, and then you drop into my lap and go through them and identify, ‘That’s great, that’s good, there might be a song here.’ .”
The result is one of Metallica’s hardest and most crushing records to date, a constant onslaught of riffs that befall you like a landslide.
“For a lot of guys around the block, I like the fact that it’s pretty relentless,” he says.
Hetfield stepped on the accelerator from the beginning. The title track is full of sharp thrash guitars, blistering rhythms and vivid lyrics about “human wrath.” That leads to Shadows Follow’s claustrophobic night terrors. Screaming Suicide, on the other hand, is a simpler metal workout that still sits high on the Scoville scale.
But under the squall and thunder, this album shows Hetfield at his most vulnerable.
The singer has recently undergone an upheaval, from a second rehab to a divorce from costume designer Francesca Tomasi, and has channeled that pain into her record, writing lyrics about seduction, isolation, “bloody eyes” and “phantoms.” is clarified. ” of fame.
Perhaps most powerfully, Screaming Suicide, a dark dialogue between Hetfield and his inner demons, resists the temptation to self-destruct.
“It’s silly to think we should deny that we have thoughts like this,” the singer said in a statement referring to the lyrics. You should be able to speak.”
“One of the things James is really good at is reiterating that you are not alone,” adds Ulrich.
“We’re all grappling with dark issues on different levels, and often getting out of the system and into the conversation really helps.”
The band’s self-titled 1991 album, also known as The Black Album, is the 18th best-selling record of all time.
The song encapsulates the concept of 72 Seasons, where the emotions and experiences of the first 18 years will last a lifetime.
For Ulrich, who grew up as an only child in bohemian Denmark, that meant feeling like a “loner” or a “misfit” despite selling 125 million records worldwide. increase.
“It doesn’t work that way. Sure, there are times when the euphoria of the incredible group of 80,000 and the music disappears and the euphoria of the music. But I still think, ‘You’re an outsider.’ Man, you’re a bit of a misfit.”
After running away from those feelings for over an hour, the closing track of the 72nd season finally shed a ray of light, as Hetfield decided:”my misery / she’s not what i live for.”
At over 11 minutes, “Ina Morata” is the longest song they’ve ever recorded, an ever-changing song built from their last tour’s “Jam Session in the Tuning Room”. Requiem, which has developed extensively through lockdown.
But with Hetfield and Ulrich both turning 60 this year, performing a piece this long and complex is becoming an increasingly difficult task.
“I go to the gym and stay there longer than I used to,” admits the drummer. “What’s interesting is that as we age, we have to put in more effort to maintain the same level or keep the plateau level.”
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An avid outdoor runner, he switched to a treadmill during lockdown. And now I spend hours on the peloton, using my time watching Tarantino box sets and falling down YouTube wormholes.
As he gears up for tour rehearsals, that means digging up obscure live clips of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
“Not only do you get inspired, you get to look at something new every time you discover something you might have missed, but so is finding something new by going back to the music you have been in a relationship with for 40 years. Satisfactory..”
Here we detour to a lengthy discussion of one of Ulrich’s all-time favorites, Deep Purple’s 1972 live album Made In Japan.
Originally filmed in Osaka and Tokyo, the official release is compiled from multiple tour dates, but recordings of each show exist, and the musicians are fascinated by how the sets have evolved.
“For most bands in 2023, including the ones we’re talking about here, the songs don’t change much from night to night,” he says. “But when you make a song like Child in Time, listen to the Made in Japan recording, and then hear another take the night before and the night after, it’s insane how different they are. not.
“One night the song is eight minutes long, another night it’s 11 minutes, and it’s all improvised. The musicians just jump in there and see where it goes.”
image source, Getty Images
Deep Purple had a big influence on Ulrich as a kid
For Metallica, that’s not always possible.
“It’s great to have the music out of your head and into your body, but some Metallica songs keep you thinking.
“For example, like Blackened, you have to have a full grasp of all starts and ends and tempo changes: ‘Here we are, four bars later. I hope we don’t screw this up! ’”
To keep things fresh, the band is taking a new approach on their upcoming tour. Dubbed a “weekend without repeats”, the event sees the band come to a new town each week (including Leicestershire’s Download Festival), where he performs two shows each night with a completely different setlist and supporting line-up.
“It’s a little bit crazy, a little bit daunting,” says Ulrich.
image source, Getty Images
Metallica’s M72 tour kicks off in Amsterdam later this month
Another Metallica innovation for 2023 is the purchase of its own vinyl factory in Virginia.
Mainly, it can meet the demand. Metallica was his sixth highest-selling artist in the United States last year, with him selling 387,000 records from his past catalog.
But the move is also inevitable. In order to have enough records for 72 Seasons’ release, Metallica had to turn in the album six months in advance. All the while, they faced the possibility of their music being leaked. By purchasing Furnace Records, who have been pressing discs for the past 15 years, these leads can cut his times.
But Ulrich says they are not the only beneficiaries.
“It’s a little daunting, but we’re doing what we’re doing by helping our other band brothers and sisters and making sure the press continues to run to maximum capacity. We’re trying to find ways to integrate what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll be able to help bring more independent music to people.”
And maybe he could print a crazy one-off Deep Purple bootleg just for himself?
“You know?” he laughs conspiratorically. “Sneak in there at 3 in the morning to get next level live variations of his Made in Japan on vinyl. Just two copies of him, one for you and one for me.”
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