Metallica’s Lars Ulrich on the Art of Aging Gracefully (While Headbanging)
Lars Ulrich was only 19 when Metallica released their speed limit–defying debut, Kill ‘Em All, in 1983. On each successive album, the metal musicians waited for the mainstream to come to them. Then, their 1991 “Black Album” became the bestselling album of the past three decades thanks to songs like “Enter Sandman” and “Nothing Else Matters.” Every album they’ve put out since has gone to Number One or Two, and their Eighties anthem “Master of Puppets” recently enjoyed a renaissance thanks to Stranger Things.
Now at age 59, the drummer still whips up Tasmanian Devil blurs of beats on 72 Seasons, Metallica’s latest full-length, as his bandmates bash out guitar riffs and sing about the hardships of growing up. The title refers to the first 18 years of life, and songs like “Lux Æterna,” “Too Far Gone?” and “72 Seasons” bear all the spleen, piss, and vinegar of the group’s early thrashers. But as Rolling Stone noted in a review of the album, “they play with more purpose than in their speed-demon days.”
More from Rolling Stone
Peso Pluma Had a Monster Year in 2023. Here's What He Hopes Is Next
From Tropical Vacations to Metallica Sound Baths, These Whiskey Brands Are Getting Experimental
Metallica Postpone Arizona Show as 'COVID Has Caught Up With' James Hetfield
Ulrich, who speaks with Rolling Stone ahead of Metallica’s headlining appearance at the Power Trip festival, says part of the reason for the way they play is the fact that they’re at peace with their legacy and their capabilities. “In the past on different records, we experimented, but I think if you take our last three records, it feels like each record is more and more representative of exactly what is in our comfort zone,” he says. “That’s why it feels so natural.”
Metallica recently celebrated the band’s 40th anniversary. This far in, what was your thought process going into making an album like 72 Seasons?
Putting new music out these days is always challenging, and a bit of a crapshoot because there are always questions about, “What does it mean?” and who’s actually listening to it. I think we’re very at ease with the fact that we need to write music, we need to make records for our own sanity, for our own well-being, for our own existence, really. It will always be a significant part of who we are as people. I know there’s a lot of artists that have been around for a while that are questioning the validity or the relevance of [making new albums]. But I believe that even if zero people heard the music, it’s hard to believe that we wouldn’t record. There’s a need to be creative.
The seeds of this album began during lockdown and the uncertainty of that time. So it was more of a challenging beginning to the project. So if you know that going in and you don’t expect anybody to listen to your records and you don’t really even know what records mean nowadays, then the reaction to the record from friends, fans, peers, and people whose opinions we respect and appreciate has been nothing short of positive and invigorating. It feels like the response to this record is probably the best we’ve done since we started working with [producer] Greg Fidelman: Death Magnetic, Lulu, Through the Never, Hardwired, etc.
Your fans certainly seem happy Metallica still makes fast-paced, headbangable music after all these years.
It seems like this record has really hit a nerve with its energy, with its relentlessness, with its lyrics and topics — the whole “72 seasons” idea as an overall theme. And I think the vulnerability and all the different sides of us that we’re all comfortable sharing about the aging process resonate with people. Two of [Metallica’s] members are just north of 60, and two are knocking on the door of 60. And we’re not trying to hide that. We’re celebrating it. So when you take all that into account, the reception has been far beyond what was expected.
Age is an important part of 72 Seasons. Do you feel like talking about being around age 60 has opened up a new dialogue with your fans?
I don’t think there’s an openness that has replaced a “closedness” but the phrase “warts and all” and transparency continue to be something that we prioritize. As we get older and go down the path of life individually and collectively as a band, we’re comfortable sharing insight into whatever the hell it is we’re figuring out — or not figuring out — all the different mindsets that happen to you as you move forward. The dialogue we’re having with our fans feels very pure. As you get older, you’re not trying to pretend to have found the fountain of youth or rest on your laurels from the back in the day, there’s a path forward. I still feel, 40 years later, that pretty much all I thought about is the future.
A lot of the songs, like “Lux Æterna” and “Too Far Gone?” are incredibly fast. How do you account for Metallica keeping your pace musically, playing thrash, when other artists your age are slowing down?
Overall, we’re in better shape than we’ve been in for a while. Obviously, the physicality of the music has always demanded a lot, and there are different times when you feel you’re more on top of that than other times. Speaking for myself, when we started gigging again after pandemic lockdowns, I realized that staying in shape, staying healthy, and staying on top of “lifestyle choices” are the biggest contributions to physicality that can be made.
Playing these songs live is super fun. We’re steering them, they’re not steering us. Certain people choose not to go down particular creative paths if a song can’t be [performed live.] We’ve done eight out of 12 songs so far, and we’ve figured out how to crack all of them in a live situation and feel really good about it.
Do you feel like you made creative breakthroughs on 72 Seasons?
I’m proudest of the energy, the relentlessness, how manic the record is without feeling contrived or forced or one-dimensional. As the songs were coming along, I could see an energy that was happening in the songwriting that was captured in the recording.
Also, something that’s been in a lot of feedback that’s come my way is how the record sounds, sonically. We’ve had a relationship with Greg for 16 years, and we have a trust. All four of us as individuals have put a lot of time into making sure our instruments are sounding the way we would like them to, so the process of the sonics has been very time-consuming. But with the trust, I don’t think I had hardly any conversations with him about how the drums should sound. That comes from knowing each other. Compared to previous records, Greg was landing on what was working not just for each member but for the sound of the band as a whole.
I’m pleasantly surprised how many people have commented on how great this record sounds, whether you’re listening to it on Apple AirPods or any other kind of headphones or being blown away in a living room like that old Memorex ad. That’s a great thing.
Speaking of sonics, what’s up with the end of “Inamorata” where one of you talks about the “best button.” It’s the last moment on the album. Is that recording related?
Well, “button” is a term for the end of a song. So the last few hits or the outro is the button. If you talk to 10 artists, you’ll probably hear 10 different sets of lingo and quirky explanations for what they call stuff when they work together. What we call the very end of a song is the button.
You also hit on some new sounds for the band on the album, too. The vocal harmonies on “You Must Burn” sound otherworldly and eerie.
We wanted something ethereal or dreamy for that part, a juxtaposition to what was going on in the rest of the song. We wanted something that didn’t feel so much like a vocal, “middle-eight” type thing but some atmospheric element to it. And [bassist] Robert [Trujillo] stepped up and added his part to that. So it has a sound all its own both from the creative part of it and the execution part of it.
How have the songs changed for you since you started playing them live?
Obviously, we’ve done a few nips and tucks with the push and pull of dynamics, especially in intros … a longer pause here, a shorter thing there. But nothing has radically changed water into wine. You write the song, you record the song, then you decide to play the song. Then you relearn it and start playing it live. So far, we’re eight in, and we’re landing in a good place. We’ll probably get deeper into it. We have dates booked up to another year from now, so if you and I speak another year from now, that number will go above eight. So I’m excited about that.
In the years since the band was up for its first Grammy — a debacle in 1989 when non-metal band Jethro Tull won in the metal category over Metallica — nearly every album you’ve released has topped the charts. Do you feel the mainstream understand heavy music any better now?
We’ve probably had the biggest summer we’ve ever had just in terms of sheer number of tickets sold between our European and American dates. Obviously, that’s a complete mindfuck given that it’s 42 years into this ride. But at the same time, it feels that hard rock is more of a subculture and less mainstream than it’s been.
Looking back, at the Eighties with MTV and AOR radio and magazines from Rolling Stone to Kerrang! … it feels like hard rock was much more a conversation in the mainstream than it is now. So while these numbers are crazy — and I know so many other bands are doing crazy numbers, like Guns N’ Roses, Slipknot, Ghost, Disturbed — it feels like hard rock is more part of a subculture and kind of outside of the mainstream again like when we started Metallica.
I don’t know if I have as much knowledge of what’s going on around me as I did 20, 30 years ago, and I don’t know if I’m interested in being as much a part of that conversation as I was, but when asked, it definitely feels like what we’re doing in hard rock in general is connecting with a lot of people. But in terms of the zeitgeist and overall mainstream culture, it doesn’t feel like we’re as much a part of the mainstream conversation as it has been in the past.
This story is part of Rolling Stone’s fourth annual Grammy Preview issue, released ahead of the start of first-round voting on Oct. 13th. We featured SZA on the cover, spoke to some of the year’s biggest artists about the albums and singles that could earn them a statue come February, made our best predictions for the nominees in the top categories, and more, providing a full guide of what to watch for in the lead-up to the 2024 awards.
Best of Rolling Stone
