Album by album
Metallica
“Ready for whatever…” Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett discuss their finest work
I’VE been listening to myself talk for four hours,” says Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich down the line from his San Francisco HQ. “I’m fuelled by tea!” Tea is good stuff, but it cannot alone account for the prolixity of this legendary rock drummer. Happily, one of hard rock’s most notorious talkers is also one of its most articulate thinkers and driven professionals. Practised in the art almost to the point of being Post-Interview, Lars is also able to channel strong flavours from the greatest work by one of the world’s best - and biggest - hard rock bands. Today’s conversation is occasioned by a new album, S&M2 which revisits a proposition (Metallica with a symphony orchestra) which sounds as if it originated in a prank or a mishearing, but which 20 years on from the original concert, marks the band’s elevation to venerated civic dignitaries. The new release is a live document of the occasion when in 2019, they were called upon to inaugurate the San Francisco Chase Center - a huge new venue in their adopted city. Metallica’s journey there has been made via suburban garage and sports arena, and in the company of fallen comrades - most notably the band’s first bassist, Cliff Burton (1962-1986) - symphony orchestras, even Lou Reed. Joined by guitarist Kirk Hammett (savage on guitar; gentle of insight on the phone) Lars is up to discuss all of it. “We were driven by piss and vinegar,” he says…
Metallica in 1986: (c/wise from top left) Kirk Hammett, Cliff Burton, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield
JOHN ROBINSON
METALLICA
KILL ‘EM ALL
MUSIC FOR NATIONS, 1983
With the band’s classic lineup in place, Metallica deliver the primal text of thrash. Differences with producer Paul Curcio result in a swift remix prior to release.
LARS ULRICH [drums]: The first record was our first 10 songs. It wasn’t that we had 50. From that point of view it was very straightforward. You read these interviews where it’s “We wrote 30 songs for an album and picked the best nine.”
KIRK HAMMETT [lead guitar]: We only had three weeks or so to record. And so we’re a fresh band with lots of energy but no experience in the studio, but who were really, really opinionated. Which didn’t help us at that point - it helped us later.
LARS: When we made the first record I was 19 and James was 19. We were so fucking young. You’re driven by whatever primal decision-making ability that you have at that time. You show up on time and you try and maximise what you have - you’re always a week short! But we found ourselves in Rochester New York, we were sleeping on top of each other in a house, and were recording in a place that was haunted. But none of that shit matters when you’re 19 and ready for whatever.