METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was interviewed earlier this month on the "La Viola" show on the Argentinian TV channel TN. You can now watch the report below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On whether all the criticism has encouraged METALLICA to do things differently over the years:
Ulrich: "I think METALLICA has been criticized more or less since the beginning. I mean, the hard rock fans take it very seriously, and I think sometimes too seriously. They're very vocal — they're passionate — but sometimes you have to kind of balance that off with saying, 'Okay, everybody, let's just calm down. It's just rock and roll,' or whatever. So I think we try to find the right balances. The members of METALLICA have always been very curious and very interested in different things and open to different ways of doing things. I think when we were young, when you're not so confident, when we were young, we were really trying to play a lot and show how talented we were. Now, I think, we're not so worried about whether people think we're talented or not. Now, because we're so comfortable with who we are… I think as you get a little older and get a little more experience, you become less worried about what people think of you and you become more comfortable with yourself. I think we've always tried with our fans to say, 'We are METALLICA and we will do things our way, we will do it differently. Come along for the ride, but if you wanna come along for that ride, know that it's gonna be a ride that's gonna take us to many different places."
On whether he and the rest of METALLICA were joking when they said they were "Beliebers" — a.k.a. fans of pop singer Justin Bieber:
Ulrich: "No. You know, he's a talented kid. He's talented. I mean, obviously, he doesn't make it easy for himsef, and I can only imagine how difficult it must be to have to deal with everybody being on top of him 24 hours a day; I don't wish that upon anybody."
On what kind of music he listens to in his spare time:
Ulrich: "I listen mostly to what my kids listen to, 'cause they always hijack the stereo, they steal the stereo in the car. We get into the car and they take control of the iPod. So, thankfully, my kids listen to SYSTEM OF A DOWN, FOO FIGHTERS, ARCTIC MONKEYS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, AC/DC…"
On what it's like being in METALLICA in 2014:
Ulrich: "It's exciting. It's been an exciting time. The last, I don't know, six months, we finished our movie, we went to the Antarctic, we played the Grammys again, which was nice. We've started writing songs and preparing for the next record, so that's very exciting. We're down here among all of you beautiful people and playing [the] 'By Request' [setlist] and going to new places. We were in Quito two days ago, where we'd never been [before]. We're playing a new song ['The Lords Of Summer'] on stage, which people seem to be very receptive to. We're writing away. We've got some good ideas. Our biggest problem is not the ideas, our biggest problem is time. METALLICA is busier than ever, and it just seems like there's more and more going on and the days get shorter and shorter. But, hopefully, we will be done writing this year and next year we should record and hopefully have a new record out maybe next year. We'll see. Hopefully next year."
In the latest issue of U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett was asked if it's strange to him how much METALLICA has eclipsed the other "Big Four" bands of 1980s thrash metal — SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX — in terms of commercial popularity.
"I try not to spend too much time thinking about stuff like that because whatever I think of is still not going to be a satisfying enough explanation," he replied. "It's just the way things are and how the chips fell.
"EXODUS [Kirk's former band and the group many think should included if the 'Big Four' were expanded and considered the 'Big Five'] in the '80s had some bona fide problems, but I think their first album [1985's 'Bonded By Blood'] is just as good as [METALLICA's debut] 'Kill 'Em All'. We were just playing the music we wanted to hear because no one else was playing it and it wasn't being played on the radio. It was only a small group of people who knew about it and it was almost elitist in that 'No posers allowed!' thing."
MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine last year spoke to Radio.com about which band should have been included if the "Big Four" were expanded and considered the "Big Five". Mustaine said: "You know, people will say there's a whole another generation, like the 'Medium Four' [laughs], and I think there's a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [late EXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him."
In a 2010 interview with Metal Asylum, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt was asked if he feels the "Big Four" should have been expanded and considered the "Big Seven", including EXODUS, TESTAMENT and OVERKILL.
"Well, I think it should be the 'Big Five' with EXODUS, because we were there at the start of thrash metal with METALLICA in the real early '80s," he said. "Same thing with MEGADETH because [Dave] Mustaine was a part of METALLICA's birth and he also created MEGADETH. And SLAYER are SLAYER. ANTHRAX are also great and old friends, but if you listen to those first few records, they have definitely changed. TESTAMENT has every right to be part of the thrash metal legends, but it just came down to timing because they came later. And OVERKILL have been their since the beginning also. But I don't get hung up on that shit, because I know how it all started and I know where I was when the shit got created. We [EXODUS] certainly deserve to be part of the founding fathers, but you know who often gets excluded are the Germans — KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM. Everybody looks to America and forgets those guys. KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM all released records in the early '80s."
He continued: "Really, the "Big Four" is solely based on sales and the ones who sold the most. But if you compare records, I will put EXODUS' last few albums up against anybody's shit. SLAYER is always awesome; the last TESTAMENT album [at the time of the interview], 'The Formation of Damnation', was great; the new MEGADETH [2009's 'Endgame'] is one of their best; METALLICA are still finding their feet again, and their last album, 'Death Magnetic', was a step in the right direction. The new OVERKILL, 'Ironbound', is one of their best records ever; it's so good. And KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, and SODOM still make great new music. What I think it boils down to is the bands who've been doing this the longest still can do it the best. METALLICA are still a mighty force live, but they lost their way for quite a while. But then again I've never had to deal with the horrible problem of having millions of dollars. [Laughs] Maybe if I had that kind of money, it would distract my hunger for doing this kind of shit, too. But, unfortunately for me, I have to keep kickin' people in the teeth, I don't have the funds to go art-shopping. My version of fine art is a new edition of Hustler magazine. [Laughs]"
