Lars Ulrich

One joke I use when I hear a loud pounding of any sort is either, "Still a better drummer than Lars Ulrich", or "Who let Lars in here?". That said, he does the job, I enjoy Enter Sandman and Battery. I've never liked Metallica a whole lot, but I realize that without them Disturbed and many other newer bands I do like would have never come to be.
 
I personally think he is a very good drummer.He is the founder and drummer for one of the biggest bands ever.Despite his advancing years,he is okay after 30 years of Drumming.When he was younger,he had speed,feel and he wrote some legendary drum scores.He is one of my all time heroes.
 
One joke I use when I hear a loud pounding of any sort is either, "Still a better drummer than Lars Ulrich", or "Who let Lars in here?". That said, he does the job, I enjoy Enter Sandman and Battery. I've never liked Metallica a whole lot, but I realize that without them Disturbed and many other newer bands I do like would have never come to be.
We have a similar saying of "Lars-ing it up" whenever you give a less than stellar performance!
 
Okay, here we go internet. How and why is Lars a "terrible" drummer? What could he do differently that would make him better? I just keep reading comments on drum videos, and every top-rated comment is "Betar then thtat **** Ulrich!!!". I am curious on whether he actually deserves so much hate, or if the internet is just being, well, the internet.
 
I've always found him to be a decent drummer, and has improved over the course of his career to be a great drummer. He's definitely put some work into his craft and he's reaping the benefits. People who insist he's terrible are just jelly doughnuts.

On the flip side, interviews during the Sandman era onward portrayed him to be a complete douche. While I understand that media can make us believe anything they want.... The members of that band have some issues.
 
Good thing he's not the drummer for Rush or The Beatles. The public scathing would be much worse.
 
he's good and he was pretty influential. however, as my brother put it, his drumming in the past 15 years is just..uninspired. he's just keeping time. death magnetic was a little better, but overall he isn't doing anything special.

i will say though, he really expends energy at that kit. at his age that's pretty impressive.
 
Drummers play to the music while driving the band. There's not a lot more Ulrich could do with Metallica's writing style that would not begin to detract from the music. Same with Peart.

GeeDeeEmm
 
I think it's because he doesn't play like he did on those first three albums. Couldn't get further from it at times. He's become progressively more minimalist over the course of their career.....often to the point of laziness that seems to imply a lack of former ability. It's a point that hasn't been lost on his peers either. When you have a contemporary like Dave Lombardo offering to give him a few lessons to remind him "of how it's done" then I guess it's no surprise that he's being considered a far cry from the levels of excitement, creativity and pioneering that he once was.

The chopping and splicing of his drum parts in the studio doesn't seem to help his "street cred" any either. The Lombardo's and Benante's of the world can still pull off all their old licks.....and then some. I guess the general feeling is why can't Lars?

Still back in the mid eighties, to a young teen growing up in Melbourne Australia, those three guys were considered pioneers of their craft. We absolutely loved 'em. In Lars' case, it's been such a shame to see that reputation diminished to the level it has been. I'm still a fan.....always will be. But I can at least understand where some of the accusations stem from.
 
I think the hate for Lars is two-fold and neither has anything to do with his drumming ability.

1) Like was stated above, Lars has somehow always came off as a completely, arrogant, self centered moron whenever he seems to open his mouth.

2) Lars was and still is a key player against music piracy and for a lot of people it just burns into their skulls exactly how you can be complaining about something when you literally have millions of dollars. Even though he's totally in his right, he just comes off as super greedy to the average person when the subject of piracy comes up.

And that's just my 2 cents. But I really think those 2 things are why some people don't like him. In my opinion, his drumming fits in exceptionally well with the music he's playing. He plays enough to keep drummers interested, but not enough to be overbearing to the music itself.

Peace, Defender
 
Lars is now wearing a dress?

Metaphorically, yes. He started wearing that on the black album.

Then there's the internet. Have you seen him solo? Thanks to the web, so have millions of others. He's aweful considering his fame and legend status.

His drumming was, however, very good in the studio and in playing the songs live. I love how he would place accents on the crashes in unexpected places, and I would point to him without a second thought when asked who influenced me to do that.
 
I think any hate you hear is an inner reflection of the person doing the hating. Lars has nothing to do with it, he is just a reason to spout hate.

When people hate you, you're doing something right.

I wonder if these haters would spew hate right to Lars face?
 
Lars is a major influence on all metal drumming. I'd wager 99% of the drummers who put down Lars were directly or indirectly influenced by him.

The issue with Lars is historical context.

It's like a car that was state of the art in the 1930's, but that same car can't keep up with a even a mediocre standard production car of today.


In the 80's, Lars was doing things on drums few to no one was doing in a context where it was reaching people. His influence on young drummers was huge.

But as the 90's went on, millions of kids who grew up on Lars took everything Lars did, leaned how to do it, and then learned how to improve upon it, and took to new heights.

Lars himself went in opposite direction, got lazy, stopped practicing, and got to the point where he struggles to play his own parts.

There was a time that if you could play "One" on double bass, people looked up to you as having reached milestone in double bass drumming. Now double bass has so progressed that kids are born knowing how to play "One" and it's simple by todays standards.

Made worse that Lars so rarely practices (and readily admits it) that in concert, he can barely play "One" without sounding very sloppy.

Kids who weren't around in the 80's to understand the historical context see clips of Lars struggling to get through songs, then compare it to someone like George Kollias, Derek Roddy, or Thomas Haake, and Lars looks silly.

And even more so compared to someone like Dave Lombardo who has not only kept up his drumming over the years, but has actually taken the effort to improve his playing.
 
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