|
|
|
METALLICA
|
|
This property was reserved by FranPinto
I'm a
METALLICA FREAK
James Hetfield guitars & vocals
Lars Urlich Drums
Kirk Hammet Lead Guitar
Jason Newstead Bass guitar & Backup Vocals
Discography
Kill 'Em All July 1983
Ride The Lightning July 1984
Master Of Puppets February 1986
Garage Days Re-Revisited August 1987
...And Justice For All September 1988
Metallica August 12, 1991
Load June 4, 1996
Reload November 17, 1997
Garage INC November 24, 1998
Singles
Title Released
Jump In The Fire January 1984
Creeping Death November 1984
Harvester Of Sorrow September 1988
One April 1989
Enter Sandman August 1991
The Unforgiven November 1991
Nothing Else Matters April 1992
Wherever I May Roam June 1992
Sad But True September 1992
Until It Sleeps May 1996
Hero Of The Day 1996
Mama Said 1996
The Memory Remains November 1997
The Unforgiven II 1998
Fuel 1998
Turn The Page November 1998
Whiskey In The Jar January 1999 incoming
|
.gif)
|
|
|
|
Lars Urlich
|
Lars Ulrich is undoubtedly the most famous drummer in heavy metal, and probably the most high-profile drummer in the music business. It was his massive enthusiasm for heavy metal that created Metallica, and much of their success is down to his incredible work rate. Ulrich is heavily involved in the business side of the band, just to loves to give interviews and also delights in the ligging and attendant socializing that being in the world s biggest heavy metal band engenders. His high profile works against him in the press, who often mistake enthusiasm for ego. However, within the band Ulrich enjoys the total respect of the other members, and he will defend them to the hilt in return. "You may be sitting in the plane waiting for him for three-quarters of an hour, but you know that is because he is making sure that something happens next week. We really do rely on each other. If one of us is weak, then we are all weak. he says every day that everyone has a role in this band. His role is partly as a go-between for band and management and industry, holding stuff together. making sure stuff happens in order to get the band in the right place.
Ulrich s heart and soul is in Metallica. There is a revealing scene in the band s fly-on-the-wall documentary of making of the METALLICA album where Ulrich and Hetfield are at each other s throats, a confrontation that ends with the former smashing his drumstick through the skin of the drum. The point they were arguing seemed small, but not to Ulrich. His devotion to the perfecting of Metallica is unswering.
Tennis to rock. Ulrich has never lost sight of what it feel like to be a fan, because, at heart, he still is one. He just happens to be in a bigger band than many of his heroes! Even as the Wherever I May Roam tour kicked in with shows as a part of the travelling European Monster Of Rock bill, he was deeply thrilled to be appearing with Antipodean boogie legends AC/DC. Similar appearences throughout the world with likes of Iron Maiden and Deep Purple had the same effect. And Metallica s monumental US tour with Guns N Roses in the summer 1992 was driven on by Ulrichs enthusiasm for Guns and the power of the double bill they could construct together.
James Hetfield was often scornful of Ulrichs obvious enjoyment of hanging out and partying on that tour, but Lars did not care. He is still living out his dreams, and loving every minute of it. Those dreams began when he discovered heavy rock music via his father s record collection, and saw Deep Purple in concert in his native Denmark at the tender age of nine. He was hooked on metal from that moment on, and his other planned career as a tennis player, (as his father, Torben Ulrich) began to take a downward path.
It was tennis, though, that took Ulrich from Denmark to Florida to study at a tennis academy. And study he did-but mainly at the local metal record store, which had begun to stock products by the rapidly growing legions of hungry young UK bands lumped together under the NWOBHM masthead. Ulrich threw himself into the music with unwavering devotion. Diamond Head in particular blew his mind, and he flew to England in 1981 to follow one of their tours and to immerse himself fully in the scene.
It was no passing fad. Ten years after the NWOBHMs glory days of 1982, Ulrich took time out to put together a multi-band compilation, The NWOBHM Revisited, along with journalist Geoff Barton, whose work in the now-defunct weekly UK rock paper Sounds had kept ulrich posted while he was in the states. And when Diamond Head re-formed for a long-overdue second bite of the cherry in 1993, Ulrich was immediately on hand to get the band press attention, advise on their comeback LP Death And Progress and generally get the vibe up and running.
Drumming for successs: Ulrich had made massive strides as a drummer since he began Metallica with that fateful LA newspaper ad that brought him into contact with James Hetfield. Hetfield was a step ahead of him musically at that point. In fact, the pair had already met for rehearsals once before and Hetfield had pulled out because he felt that Ulrich had not yet developed the necessary technical skills.
With typical tenacity, though Ulrich stuck with it. On the Metal Massacre LP track "Hit The Lights" and on the and on the No Life Til Leather demo he began to show promise, on Kill Em All he was a highly proficient speedster, and by Master Of Puppets he was capable of propping up numbers as varied as "Master Of Puppets","Battery"and "Orion". Jason Newsted s rapid development as an exellent bass player also upped the stakes for Ulrich, and anyone who caught the Wherever I May Roam tour can vouch that Metallica would not be the ferocious and lean unit they are without Ulrich s engine room.
It was Ulrich, too, who possessed the foresight and ambition to whip Metallica s career along after a promising start with Johnny Z s Megaforce and the UK s Music For Nations. While others may- and indeed have-been willing simply to settle for what they have and stagnate as a result, Ulrich would not. The story goes that he contacted Peter Mensch from a phonebox and grasped the management deal that gave Metallica all the clout they neede for a big future.
Lars Ulrich s contribution to Metallica goes far beyond his drumming. No band could ask for a more enthusiastic or attentive musician. Though much maligned, he has in fact enabled Metallica to become what are today-THE BIGGEST BAND IN HEAVY METAL.
|
|
|
|
|
James Hetfiels
|
For a guy who did not want to be a singer, James Hetfield has made a decent fist of fronting Metallica to worldwide glory. Hetfield wears his angst and fury on the outside when he is on stage-a big, tall man with ratty blond locks and a Fu Manchu beard, clad all in black, legs splayed apart, right arm chopping down at his guitar, eyes open wide, lyrics spat from a curling lip. Off stage, a more laconic persona takes over; Hetfield enjoys shooting pool with his mates, listening to country and western music and hunting. The trappings of stardom so beloved by Lars Ulrich are laughed at by Hetfield.
Ulrich and Hetfield are Metallicas fulcrum, and yet two more different characters you could not wish to meet. Their relationship is a complex one, but it is absolutely essential to Metallicas future well-being. And yet, from the Guns N Roses leg of the Wherever I may roam tour, there were rumours that they were having disagreements. Indeed, Hetfield quite frequently told the press that he disapproved of the backstage ligging and socializing that Ulrich threw himself into.
However, as with most close friendships, theirs is never as it may seem to the outsider. Commenting on the pairs relationship, bassist Jason Newsted said: "They dig at each other all the time and talk shit, but they are best friends. James may get angry with Lars with the time he takes on the drums, but if you looked him straight in the eye and asked him who his best friend is, he d say Lars. Sometime they need this angst. It is creative tension. If it was all nice and sweet all the time, it would not work. Things are much deeper-seated than that." The creative tension has worked to great effect for Metallica. Each of the albums is generated when Ulrich and Hetfield begin to sift through the ideas and riffs that are floating around, and then start work on arrangements. Although guitarist Kirk Hammetts contributions are vitat and Jason Newsted is slowly beginning to have more of his songs and ideas accepted, Ulrich and Hetfield pull the whole thing together. As the pair who kicked Metallica off in the first place, they surely have the greatest understanding of it is dark core.
A MUSICAL UPBRING. Just 18 years old when he first met Lars Ulrich, Hetfield had been raised in the Christian Scientist faith but was possessed of a rebellious streak that still runs through him. He had been interested in music from an early age, and had trained for two years in classical piano before he was given the traditional rock n roll start-a cheap guitar bought by his mum! He got into Black Sabbath and Van Halen, and his first taste of the rock n roll live experience at one of AC/DCs LA shows.
Hefield fooled around with highschool bands, playing all the usual covers, but soon found that writing his own material was far more satisfying. He was already looking for the step ahead when he met Lars Ulrich and had the carrot of a track on the Metal Massacre album dangled under his nose.
Metallicas early compositions were speedy imitations of their NWOBHM heroes, but even on the No Life Til Leather tape the seeds of greatness were already apparent. "Metal Militia" was a neat speed blur, while in "Seek And Destroy", Metallica had penned a song so popular that they still retain it in their live set, with entire stadiums wailing along to its whiplash chorus. Kill em all, although naive, was packed with a promise that flowered a mere year later on Ride the lightning. By the time of Master of puppets, Hetfields compositions were immense and intricate, though always memorable, and he is still stretching himself today. On the Metallica album "Nothing else matters" was a courageous departure, with the world is most renowned one-time trashers employing an orchestra to get the songs rich textures across properly.
FIERCE AND FIERY Hetfields fierce independence has made him the centre of several controversies. When Axl Rose wanted to bring Ice-T on the Guns N Roses/Metallica double bill, Hetfield baulked at the prospect and was accused of racism. It was a change he refuted with typical forthrightness, claiming that the fact that he did not like rap music did not make him a racist. Was a black man who did not like country and western music racist?
He was outspoken in his opinions of Guns N Roses-and in particular front man Axel Roses-behaviour on the tour, an argument that stemmed from a show in Montreal where Hetfield suffered quite severe burns to his arm in a pyrotechnics accident on stage. With Metallica having to cut their set short, he expected Guns N Roses to fill the breach. Instead, Rose quit the stage early and a riot consequently ensued.
He was accused of jingoism when "Dont tread on me" emerged in the wake of the Gulf War (though the songs had been written back in 1990, before the fighting began), and has also received flak for his love of hunting, which he celebrated in the song "Of wolf and man" from the Metallica set.
Hetfield admits he likes to keep himself to himself when he is away from the touring enviroment. I have never really liked people much, anyway. He confessed to UK magazine Kerrang! "As you grow older, you do not really grow apart from each other, but you tend to respect waht each person wants to do with their life. Metallica is our lives, but it is not the only thing we enjoy doing." James Hetfield sounds like a man who is sussed out just what he wants from life, and, to the relief of all his fans, Metallica still looms large in it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
