Lars Ulrich explains why he doesn’t listen to Metallica's music

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich says he doesn’t listen to the band's music as he becomes far too overanalytical.

Lars recently sat down for a chat with Vulture to talk about Metallica’s distinguished back catalogue, drumming and more when he was asked to reveal the one Metallica song he’d never want to hear again.

Despite being a firm fan favourite, Lars picked ‘The Eye of the Beholder’ from Metallica’s 1988 album ‘...And Justice for All’.

“Wherever I hear that song, it sounds kind of like — I guess we don’t want to be super-disrespectful to it — but it sounds really forced,” Lars said.

“It sounds like you put a square peg in a round hole. It sounds like it’s got two different tempos. There’s kind of a 4/4 feel in the intro and on the verses, and then I think the choruses are more like in a waltz tempo. It literally sounds like two different worlds rubbing up against each other. It sounds very awkward to me. I’m not a huge fan of that song.

“I guess the asterisk is that, to me, we did the best we could each moment. So of course, sometimes you sit down and go “Huh?” or “That could have been better” or “That was a little awkward” or “That feels a little silly or easy” or “That feels over-thought-out” or whatever.”

Revealing that he very rarely listens to Metallica’s music, Lars continued: “It goes back to that whole thing about the past is the past, and I don’t spend a long time back there. And there’s not really much I can do about it laughs and honestly, I don’t listen to them. I don’t listen to a lot of Metallica music.

“Part of it is because I’m sort of overly analytical. It’s basically almost impossible for me to listen to a Metallica song without going, “Okay, how are the sonics, how’s the mix, how does the guitar sound? The vocals are too loud, the bass is too boomy.” It becomes this exercise in analytics.

“When you hear your favourite band — like if I listened to Rage Against the Machine or something, I just f---ing let myself go. But when Metallica comes on it’s like, ‘Huh?’”

In an interview with GQ last month, Lars revealed that ‘Sad But True’ is his favourite Metallica track of all time.

“I just love playing that song,” Lars enthused. “I play it a little differently each time. I love the tempo and giving it a different interpretation every time I play it.”

Last month, Metallica released their live album and concert film ‘S&M2’, which documents their two landmark shows at The Chase Center in San Francisco on 6th and 8th September 2019 alongside the San Francisco Symphony. The album charted at number two in the UK.

Photos - Metallica rock London and Manchester in 2019:

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