DAVE LOMBARDO WANTS TO SCHOOL LARS ULRICH
Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 3:30pm by Axl RosenbergFrom a Rhythm magazine interview with Dave Lombardo that I saw on Blabbermouth:
Rhythm: Playing with METALLICA at Download in 2004 must have been quite an experience.
Lombardo: “Yeah. Show ‘em how it’s done! No disrespect to Lars [Ulrich], because Lars is great and he’s a very nice guy, but he needs to spend a week at my house and we need to sit down and play. I could show him — ‘No, Lars, like this!’… ‘Let’s chill, let’s relax, have some coffee and let’s play!’ Hahahahaha!”
If you’ve ever seen/heard this show, then you’re already aware that Lombardo ain’t dicking around – he and Joey Jordison both made Metallica sound at least 95% better (alas, Hetfield still insists on using those honky-tonk “wom-ahn” vocals he’s become so fond of). Check it out:
And while we’re on the topic, here’s Jordison playing with the band:
-AR
I am saying this as a huge Metallica fan.
I have the utmost respect for Lars as a creative personality, and as a person. He does far more than he has to with regard to the fans when considering all he has on his plate as being a husband/father, a business person, and a member of one of the biggest bands ever. He is very gracious with his time and appears to geniunely be one of the nicest and most genuine guys in rock……despite the bitter and factually incorrect shit this site tends to say about him and his band. That said, from a performance standpoint he seems to be a “maintainer”…..in that he does the bare minimum to get by. It doesn’t help when a million people tell him that what he does “is good enough for Metallica” and make a million excuses for him. Now personally, i’m a guitar player and don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the drums and i’m going to sleep just as well at night regardless of what he does on the kit. I’ll still have a total blast at the show and enjoy the albums. But Lars said himself in So What that the show they did where Lombardo and Jordison played in his place messed with his confidence. No better way to improve your confidence than to study with musicians better than yourself. There is absolutely no harm in it. There is nothing wrong with admitting publicly or privately that there are guys better than you. There is nothing wrong with letting it be known that you are studying guys who are better players. So going by that rationale I think it would at least be interesting to see if it were to happen and what might result.
And to be fair so as not to single out Lars, I believe Kirk has fallen into the same trap. Some people say that Kirk’s leads on DM “among the best he’s ever done”. I wonder if they’d say that if most of those leads hadn’t been run through a wah pedal and they could hear it unfiltered. I doubt it. It translates live as well. For example: his solo part of the show……he used to be far more ambitious from a creative standpoint. It’s been said so much at this point that it’s become cliche…..but somebody really needs take his Wah away from him. It’s a crutch…it just is. People in the 80’s never used to rag on Lars and Kirk like this. But it happens so often that it has become cliche. And that’s not just because there are alot of haters looking for something to gripe about. James and Rob seem to be the only ones really trying to better themselves as musicians.
Just my opinion and, like I said, it doesn’t mean I don’t love these guys and won’t still enjoy the albums and have the absolute best time at their shows.
yeah that seems like alot of people feel the exact same way, i know i do anyways.
This is what I think, only explained much better.
Does far more than he has to regarding his fans, huh?
That must be why he sued them, his fans, for downloading their music EVEN THOUGH they were one of the richest bands in existence? Tough love, right? Even if it incurs legal fees, it’s all good in the neighborhood!
I see it like this: he’s nothing more than another arrogant fuck rockstar who is part of one of the greatest bands to ever have recorded music, yet nowadays he’s still discontent even with 100 dollar bills shoved up his ass (of which a breed I hope is dying since the 80s are long gone and that’s where most of them have originated). I don’t jump on every article about him on the internet to slap a “LAR$ SUXXXX” post on it, nor do I defend him in situations like this. I respect him for what he is as a musician, but could care less otherwise.
I always have and will love Metallica, however it seems a little odd that he fought Napster so hard, while he still talks fondly of the old tape trading days.
he never sued any fans… just napster.. he got a list of all the fans who downloaded “album” songs (he didnt include people who downloaded bootlegs) and had them removed. people went apeshit over nothing. i think people just gave em too much crap over this. but on topic im one of those people who like lars for what he is. i mean hes no lombardo but he gets the job done. these days hes a bit lazy especially with his fills and doublebass but hes a damn good songwriter. if anybody were to replace him i would actually be ok with dave doing it hes a fucking monster!. i wish lars would take him up on his offer hahaha.
i think you’re right on. they’re just lazy or something.
I will always remember the day i got an email from their lawyer, threatening me with a class action lawsuit for downloading their work. At that point i already owned everything they had put out. What i did download off of napster was Newstead playing a cover of seek and destroy with pantera. nover got another penny out of me, never will.
Bill Hicks said it best, Sucking Satan’s Cock
“Bill Hicks said it best, Sucking Satan’s Cock”
THIS.
No need to go to Lombardo, Lars could still get a lot out of going to some random music store and taking lessons for $17 a week just like all the other regular jack offs
Agree 100% with first comment.
Nothing more really needs to be said, although Lombardo did a far better job than Jordison. Triplets on the bass, every five seconds does not make for a better song. The guy is fast, but has no groove.
Thank god i am not the only person that thought that Jordison sucked in that song. I admit he is fast but Martin Lopez (a drummer infinitely better than joey,) said it best “just because you can play double bass does not mean you are a good drummer.”
he’s not even that fast. and when he plays fast he gets really really sloppy. still better than lars though.
Battery seemed so much faster than I’ve ever heard it. Much better.
I hate the fact that Lars doesn’t play with a ride cymbal.
I didn’t hear much difference on Lombardo’s video, but Jordison’s did sound a lot better.
Personally, I know that Lars isn’t exactly a great drummer… I just don’t care. It doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the music one way or the other.
80’s lars > 90’s2000’s lars
i dont understand the whole hating on kirk thing, honestly people saying hes lost it, idk about that id love to be able to just chill with kirk, he seems like one of the chillest guys in metalica, i have the “cunning stunts” dvd and on the extras it has him just chillin before the show playin some jams smokin a cigar and he was pretty versatile in his playing, playing blues and everything, im sure that guy can still rip. although im sure hes fallen into the just being comfortable phase of his life, also id love to see him tour with like exodus you know?? small venue tour with kirk playin some legit thrash again, id deffinatly PAY to see that.
I wonder if this video (which I can’t watch from work) is the one from the Slipknot Voliminal DVD of Joey’s perspective playing Download with Metallica – which was awe-inspiring. He killed it, too, like you said. I can’t imagine what that experience must have felt like for him. And say what you want about Metallica, it boggles the mind to think they play crowds like that on a regular basis. Just, amazing.
I haven’t seen any live performances of Jordison playing with Korn. The summer he and Clint Lowery toured with them must have been the best that band has ever sounded.
Metallica sound really fresh with jordison
lars has actually regressed in his drumming in recent years. giving me the impression that he just doesn’t practice enough and relies on the fact that he’s been playing for so long. 20 years ago lars was a way better drummer than he is now. that should not happen.
0:43 of the first video… “Pokemon fever”? lulz
I thought he said something about Bob Seger…ha, I’m sure they are unbelievably bored of such songs, but his vocals are sooo bad
My issue isn’t that Lars isn’t a great drummer, it’s that he was at one time a great drummer. Just as Kirk was once a great guitarist. Lars uses crash cymbals to cover up that he can no longer do double bass and Kirk uses wah pedal to cover up the fact that he can’t come up with a creative solo.
Seriously, the solos on Death Magnetic made Kerry King sound like John Petrucci.
+1,000,000
Virgil Donati, as posted by Devin in his list of favorite drummers earlier this week is a shining example of how someone should progress on their instrument. He is 51 years old, and he is STILL getting better EVERY YEAR. He practices CONSTANTLY.
With respect to Lars, it’s normal to rag on the guys a lot now, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t learn how to play drums from listening to Metallica records, and trying to play along. I bought the entire drum transcription book for the black album, and learned it NOTE FOR NOTE. There’s some good drumming on there! The fills on Sad But True were pretty creative! And for developing speed, their old thrash stuff is an awesome workout!
I used to have a philosophy that motivated me to keep practicing, and that was that I never wanted to be the weakest member of a band. I always wanted to be the best. But I found that in doing that I tended to surround myself with musicians who were not as good as me, and I’d end up getting frustrated waiting for them to catch up. Not all of them had the mentality to work at it and improve, which would frustrate me more. And not only that, but it made me lazy too, because I knew that they wouldn’t be able to keep up to me, so I never bothered as much to practice. I finally changed my mentality, broadened my horizons and decided to change my mantra and surround myself with people BETTER than me, because it would FORCE me to grow.
It’s when I stopped thinking that I “didn’t need to practice,” or “didn’t need to take lessons,” and actually started practicing 3+ hours a day, and taking lessons from better players than myself that I realized how much time I had wasted and how much I literally DID NOT KNOW about my instrument. Now I’m just overwhelmed with things to practice and learn that it’s almost depressing because I know I’ll never have enough time in my life to get it all down!
I don’t agree with previous comments that say Kirk Hammett has regressed the same way Lars Ulrich did.
Lars did regress, anybody can see that (he can’t do shit when he plays AJFA stuff live…), but people who say Hammett relies on his wah don’t get it. It’s something he uses constantly to make his solos more interesting, the same way Dimebag and Zakk Wylde used pinch harmonics to make their riffs sound better. Plus, Hammett has used wah pedals since the RTL era, so to say that he NOW uses it as a crutch is ridiculous.
Also, Hammett has to improvise or make up a solo at every show. It’s hard to do something different every night when you’ve played thousands of shows all around the world. You can be the best guitarist ever, a guitar has its limitations, so does any musical instrument.
………..because Lars fuckin’ sucks
Why did Cliff Burton have to be the one that died?
I remember reading an interview Kirk did for a guitar magazine around the time St Anger came out and he mentioned (paraphrasing here) that he was having people take away all of his wah pedals so he wouldn’t get stuck in a wah-solo rut.
We all know how THAT turned out… :P
BAYBUH!!!
he’d rather look @ art and snort coke then pick his sticks
I actually got goosebumps during “Creeping Death” with Jordison, like I did in the old days…especially during the big middle breakdown (“die,die, die…etc)..Hetfield was so bad on “Battery” that it almost overshadows Lombardo’s performance..
i like this version of “Seek and Destroy” with Jordison as well.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG6ld6ilXpE
enjoy
I think hetfield sucking is dragging the bands sound down more than the rest of them sucking. He used to sound kind of evil and now hes just trying to sing to much or something and it kills it for me. No more dragging words out and no more ohhh’s james please.
Fuck yeah, that was awesome!
i think metallica is a band thats overrated. everything they did, death did it better, wothout becoming dick eating rock starrrss. its saaad but truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue.
not to mention sepultura, they did it better too. but then, ya…went down from therrrrrre.
How can you compare a thrash metal band to a death metal band? That’s like saying Tony Blair did it better than George Bush… not comparable situations.
As a Metallica fan, I do agree to an extent.
Neither Kirk or Lars are the musicians they once were but I don’t think it boils down to pure skill. I think some of the other influences they took in during the Load/Reload era had some long term repercussions on their playing.
Kirk has said in multiple interviews that he was influenced by a lot of blues guitarists at the time, and still continues to be. Blues isn’t a super-fast, super-flashy playing style like metal tends to be. Maybe that’s why he relies on the wah pedal for the flashier stuff. And as impressive as his guitar playing was on Death Magnetic, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those solos were copy and pasted together in Pro Tools. I think Kirk’s problem isn’t really his actual skill. I think maybe his heart isn’t really into playing metal anymore.
As for Lars, I don’t if he’s mentioned his influences, but the Load/Reload era featured a more groove oriented playing style from him which might have changed his playing style to a point that the fast stuff doesn’t come as naturally to him. Plus, the dude is in his 40’s and you know he doesn’t take the best care of himself. Drums are a very physically demanding instrument and if Lars isn’t die hard into his playing like a lot of other guys, it makes sense that he’s not the drummer he used to be.
And hey, while we’re on the subject of Metallica, I might as well mention James. He’s still one of the best rhythm guitar players in all of metal but holy crap are his vocals terrible. The only reason why he sounds decent on Death Magnetic is probably because they did 1000 takes before his vocals were good enough. every live video i’ve seen of them probably since St. Anger came out, he sounds like garbage.
I think Metallica should just do a farewell tour and hang it up. Death Magnetic was a decent enough album to be considered a good high note to end on.
Personally, I’d hate to hear any more of that robotic, boring Jordison brand drumming on a Metallica song. He is a prime example of technicality over creativity.
And he looks like a retard in that mask.
is it weird that the strongest link in metallica these days is trujillo?
i mean kirks solos, while they may not “suck” per say, haven’t changed in 25 years
lars just can not keep up any more, if you showed him daves bit from the end of the solo of angel of death he’d probably have a heart attack
and james vocals just dont cut it any more, he’s trying to sing stuff thats supposed to be just spat out, theres no agression left in his voice which “ruins” songs like battery
Metallica have been irrelevant for 20 years, so why all the fuss now? The Black Album is the most singularly over-rated album in Metal history! I’d rather scrape out my eyes with a rusty spoon than listen to such drivel.
Lars has contributed more than enough to the songwriting of Metallica’s finest work to put his place beyond question… in my opinion.
As a drummer he simply stopped trying to improve years ago.
Meanwhile Hammett’s creative peak was Justice and he’s been coasting on a wah pedal ever since.
Maybe it’s success that’s killing them. Think about Testament and Overkill. No one can say that Alex relies on one technique on his playing, but then again, he’s a God on the guitar. Overkill still puts out great albums, and Bobby can still shriek when he wants.
Overkill isn’t the original lineup, but Testament is. Maybe Metallica has lost interest in their instruments and are content with just success.