Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
Recently, Rolling Stone Magazine talked with the members of Metallica, including Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett, about the status of a new album and their recently announced 3D film. During their discussion, pieces of which can be read online, the drummer and guitarist made some bold comments regarding both projects. Some of it was very insightful, while also could cause a little concern depending on how you read it. So with that said, we decided to list the top five reasons why Metallica’s comments to Rolling Stone caught our attention.
5. Metallica At First Didn’t Want To Do A 3D Film.
“We didn’t want to do it at first. We were sold on it by our managers, that it would be a lot of fun and we would have a big-ass stage to play on — the biggest Metallica live show we’ve ever done, next-level stuff,” claimed Hammett. While the last part sounds pretty cool, hearing that management implanted the idea of filming a 3D movie leaves us a little concerned. Still, it sounds like the band is making sure to go all out with the film, and that could result into something cool.
4. The Benefits Of “Shorter” Songs
“Right now, I’m thinking shorter, more to-the-point,” Ulrich proclaimed On the one hand, that could be a bad sign that they’re going further away from the old school sound that they returned to on Death Magnetic. At the same time, it also means that we won’t hear long and tedious tracks like those heard on Lulu.
3. The Band Is Self-Financing The 3D Film
When talking about how they are self-financing the film, Ulrich said “We tend to pay for these things ourselves. The minute you take somebody else’s money, you have to consider their opinions. And that’s no fun.” Even if management convinced “sold” them on the idea of a 3D film, at least Metallica will have control over the final product. And like we mentioned in number five, that could also result into something cool.
2. The Sound Of The New Album
Their promise that “If Death Magnetic was a logical successor to …And Justice For All, the next album will be a heavier Black Album.” Going by that, then their next album will be a heavier Load (keep your porn jokes to yourself). That was kind of like Reload. So basically, if they keep that trajectory up, in a few albums, they’ll circle back to making a heavier Lulu. That said, despite all the initial hatred from fans of their first three albums, The Black Album is a monster, with songs like “Sad But True” and “The God That Failed.” A heavier version of that could work nicely.
1. Mentioning “Harvester Of Sorrow” And “Fuel”
“When people talk about the old stuff, they think Justice. But look at ‘Harvester Of Sorrow’ on that album. It’s a fairly simple five-minute song. And ‘Fuel’ [on 1997’s Reload] is an absolute scorcher live,” said Ulrich. While he makes a good point about “Harvester Of Sorrow,” and we admit that “Fuel” is one of the better songs off of the 1997 album, for some reason it makes us a bit uneasy hearing Ulrich mentioning any song off of Reload. And chances are, if you’re one of the critical fans we discussed in number two, then that comment bothered you as well. With that said, we’d be happy if any of the new songs sound as solid as those two tracks.
