Lost in the excitement over the Bikini Kill and Lush inclusions on Rock Band 2 was the announcement that the newly Internet-friendly guys in Metallica would release Death Magnetic as a Guitar Hero III download the same day that the album arrives in stores. Lars Ulrich told the Associated Press that this was all part of Metallica’s plan to reach the Hannah Montana demographic, who as recently as 18 years ago wouldn’t have even been allowed to listen to his band, much less spend hours playing video games trying to emulate it.
Eight years into the following decade, Lars Ulrich claims that Metallica has finally left that ’90s zone where they were “all just stressed out and nutty,” and are ready to channel said nuttiness into some “seven-minute, eight-minute, nine-minute nutty-ass songs” peppered with “kind of hardcore, nutty super-fast speed stuff.” The band failed to play anything from the long-awaited Goin’ Nuts! during their benefit performance for the Silverlake Conservatory last Wednesday, but they were joined by Flea on 1984’s “Fight Fire With Fire.” Nutty-ass!
Self-proclaimed “guy that’s been listening to your band faithfully since 1983” Dave Grohl has apparently sent an open letter to Metallica pleading with them to not release their new album until they’re sure it’s good, a rule that they haven’t really been following for the past 10 years or so.
When I saw Some Kind Of Monster, I was shocked to find Lars Ulrich the most sympathetic member of Metallica. With James Hetfield busy trying not to turn into The Hulk and Kirk Hammett fulfilling the “luke-warm water” role a little too well, Lars was the only member aggressively invested in making a frikkin’ Metallica record. Sure, St. Anger sucked, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort on his part. His recent Rolling Stone interview, however, reminds us that when taken out of a real-life Spinal Tap context, Ulrich’s enthusiasm can be a bit more annoying. Seems Dave Mustaine’s little Danish friend has come around on downloading. After all, if new Metallica songs were free, maybe people would be excited about them.
