Lars Ulrich at Orion Fest 2012, photo by David Mead
There’s only one solid explanation for why Metallica have decided to throw another Orion Music + More Festival this year. “We had a great fuckin’ weekend, and it seemed like everybody else had a really fun weekend,” Lars Ulrich tells Revolver with a laugh. “I don’t think it has to be much more intellectualized than that.”
When we catch up with him, the Danish drummer is en route to Brisbane, Australia’s RNA Showgrounds, where he and his bandmates in Metallica are playing their first gig of 2013, a year that will find the group playing gigs everywhere from the Middle East to Tokyo. As of right now, though, the only U.S. shows they have planned are their appearance at Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards, May 2 in Los Angeles, and at their very own Orion Music + More Festival, which takes place June 8 and 9 in Detroit.
The band announced the lineup and details for Orion 2013 yesterday, and it looks like it will be just as diverse and equally as incredible as last year’s. In addition to appearances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Deftones, Tomahawk, Flag (members of Black Flag), and of course a double-shot of Metallica, among many others, it will feature each Metallica member’s personal lifestyle showcase (for Ulrich, it’s a film-screening tent), the fan-favorite Metallica Museum, and a newly added EDM stage. It’s the sort of festival the drummer tells us has got him excited, and he hopes it excites not just Metallica fans but also residents of the Motor City. “Obviously Detroit is a city with such a rich diversity and a rich musical heritage,” Ulrich says in his signature cool, breezy manner. “If it works out this year, I think there’s a good chance Orion will stick around Detroit for a couple years.”
REVOLVER What are your favorite memories from last year’s Orion Music + More Festival?
LARS ULRICH That whole experience I had in my film tent. It was just so cool to show movies to 300 Metallica fans and do Q&As with the directors and the producers. I also enjoyed getting a chance to play Ride the Lightning and doing the “Black Album” thing in its entirety, which was the only time we did it in America. And just hanging and being part of the scenery for a couple days.
I had fun seeing the bands, too, in the various tents, from the Hot Snakes to the Jim Breuers of the world. Seeing Avenged Sevenfold and The Sword and Sepultura and Arctic Monkeys. I got a chance to introduce the Arctic Monkeys, which was really cool, because I have a 14-year-old kid who worships the ground that the Arctic Monkeys walk on. So I actually was a pretty cool dad for a couple minutes when I introduced them.
Which artists are you most excited to see this year?
I saw the Chili Peppers in San Francisco about six months ago. They’re on a fucking roll at the moment. They’re better than they’ve ever been. I was completely blown away for two hours. We did a run with the Deftones in 2003 on our Summer Sanitarium Tour, which was really cool. Those guys are always good. Dropkick Murphys, those guys are so much fun and have so much energy. [Laughs] There’s such a positive vibe in what they do. Bringing in the 2013 incarnation of Black Flag, minus the “Black,” is obviously going to be pretty fun. My 14-year-old has turned me on to Japandroids, and I’ve heard some of their stuff, which is pretty amazing. I’ve become kind of a late fan of Fu Manchu. My girl actually turned me on to them a little while ago, so I’m a brand new fan of theirs. I’m glad that they’re with us. You know, [proto-punk band] Death. [Laughs] We’ll have Death come out and do their thing in Detroit again! And the Dillinger Escape boys. Lots of different stuff.
You mentioned Flag. Did you ever see Black Flag during their original run?
Yeah, we did. We actually saw them in New Jersey around ’84 or ’85. That was a very special night, because up ’til now—I’m not saying it won’t happen again—but up ’til now, that’s the only time I’ve been hardcore punched. We were hanging out at the Black Flag gig, and one of the bouncers asked us to leave. And I gave him a pretty obnoxious remark back, and the motherfucker just hit me hard in the stomach. And my stomach sort of caved around his fist. That’s the other thing I remember about that night other than seeing Black Flag.
What made you want to include an EDM stage this year?
When we played at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco in August, both Hetfield and I went over to the… OK, now I’m lying. Our kids dragged us over to the electronic tent. [Laughs] And I stood on the side of the stage and watched 20 – 25,000 14-year-old kids go absolutely fucking apeshit to Skrillex. And the energy and the whole spectacle with the lights and the sound, it was just such a fucking vibe. And so we both stood there with our kids and were like, You know what? We’ve got to bring some of that to the Orion Festival. And Bassnectar is awesome. He’s one of these dudes within that whole world, and he’s actually one of the local Northern California dudes and we hear he’s a bit of metal fan. So he’s headlining the whole electronic tent
Will you be playing any of your classic albums this year?
If I was a betting man, which I’m not, I would probably not put too much money on that. I think you’ve got to be careful that it doesn’t become something that people expect from you every year, especially when you only put records out every five years like we do. We’ll run out of records to play at some point pretty quick. But I think, listen, we’ve played Puppets [in 2006], we’ve played Lightning, and we’ve played the “Black Album.” I think it’s something that we’ll keep doing throughout Metallica’s next decade or so, but I don’t know if we’re going to do it at this year’s Orion Festival. Obviously there’s an anniversary there. People say, “Oh, it’s the 30th anniversary of Kill ’Em All.” But we haven’t made a firm decision on that. I don’t want to become predictable.
Photo by David Mead
Your performance of Ride the Lightning last year, featured the song “Escape,” which you’d never played before. Was that fun? James Hetfield made it sound like you all never wanted to play it.
I love “Escape”! James is just being James. We always jam on that, mostly to piss him off. And he’ll start playing along in a different key or something. James told me that he actually heard the live version of “Escape” from Orion on the radio, and he said it sounded pretty good. So maybe there’s hope for “Escape.” Maybe it will make an appearance again in the next decade or so. That poor little song never did fucking anybody anything. It just sits on that record for 28 years, waiting to be played. Anyway, it was fun to let that one out.
Since it is the 30th anniversary of Kill ’Em All. What are your favorite memories from making that record?
We were in Rochester, New York, for six weeks. It was just fun because we didn’t know what the fuck was going on. There was just an innocence to it. We were making a record, and we had no idea what the fuck we were doing. We all lived in a house together, and we were living and eating and breathing and shitting Metallica, 24/7. That gang mentality was really, really fun.
Also, just the fact we were actually making a record. It was kind of a different thing 30 years ago, because nowadays anybody with a computer can get their music up and out to people. But back then it was more like, “Oh my God, we’re making a record.” It was pretty special. So we were fucking psyched and out of our minds and living the dream, you know?
Speaking of being out of your minds, I’ve read that Cliff Burton used to carry around a hammer and that’s what inspired the cover.
Yeah, he used to, man. He was just in his own world. He just lived in his own world. I don’t remember the specifics. I think most of those have been kind of lost to alcohol, uh, whatever, alcohol-fueled instances, but there was definitely pretty weird shit going on.
Lastly, you’re playing the Golden Gods this year, where Metallica is receiving the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. What can we expect from your performance?
Obviously, it’s going to be a lot of fun. I was there two years ago and had a fucking blast. The energy is spectacular in that room. I’ve heard of some of the other guests that are going to be there and some of the other recipients of awards. It’s going to be a fucking blast. In terms of what we’re going to play, there’s a few songs to pick from. I’m sure we’ll figure it out as we get closer. Your crew reached out to us last week about some potential collaborations, and we’re just starting to figure those out right now. It should be pretty amazing.
Photo by Cambria Harkey
Today would have been Metallica bassist Cliff Burton’s 51st birthday. In remembrance of him, the band’s drummer Lars Ulrich (pictured left) gave a personal and emotional account of him in Revolver’s “Fallen Heroes” issue (available here). He had so many great stories about Burton, we couldn’t fit them in the magazine. So, in reverence, here is everything Ulrich had to say about Burton.
REVOLVER What do you remember about the first time you saw him?
LARS ULRICH I had just never really seen anything quite like it. It was just unique and so original. And there was just this incredible stage presence and this uniqueness to the whole vibe. I had just never seen anything like it. It was new, it was different. And obviously you could tell there was an incredible ability, and there was a stage presence, and all this type of stuff wrapped up in this incredible type of personality. And I think we were a little intimidated by him in the beginning because he was just so unique.
But then as we got to know him a little bit, and I sort of started courting him to try and jump ship
, then I started realizing he was a pretty chill dude. But he was also pretty firm on the fact that L.A. was not for him. ’Cause me and James were trying to get him to come down to L.A., and he just wasn’t into that. He was really rooted up here , he really was a kind of a Northern California…almost a hillbilly like. I mean, there’s a lot of different vibes up here, and there’s definitely a kind of unique vibe in Castro Valley and Hayward and stuff. And he was a real, really rooted where it came from. And he was probably, certainly speaking for myself, I was much more of a gypsy. When we traveled and stuff like that, he was the first guy to want to go home. And he was the one who was probably at the strongest of roots of all of us. He had family and kind of a history. Me and James were more loners.He seems like he was laidback.
He didn’t hurt people. He didn’t cross the line, but he was certainly always up for being part of stirring some shit up. But more like a rascal point of view then someone who was out to hurt people. So it was more fun and games. He would fake fight or whatever, throw some kind of fake punches, but he would never throw any real punches. I don’t think I ever saw Cliff in a fight. I don’t think I ever saw Cliff get into heated exchanges or anything. I mean, he was a pretty chill guy. And it never got nasty or unpleasant.
What are your fondest memories of him?
My fondest memories of Cliff are his total disregard for convention and his total disregard for playing things out the way you expected them. He was up to challenge the normalcy, to challenge the status quo, to just fuck with things musically, attitude-wise—the way he dressed, the way he carried himself, his sense of humor, his relationship with the music that inspired him, the music that he played. It was always very unconventional, and it was very unusual. You could certainly argue that me and James at that time were more kind of the squarer guys, ’cause we were more like, “Motörhead, Iron Maiden!” Heavy metal T-shirts, and long hair and bang our heads into the wall. Cliff was just so fast in his palette of things that he was into and things that were inspiring him and the things that he was doing. So it was definitely his music, and his attitude, and his approach towards life that really inspired me and James to broaden our horizons, broaden Metallica’s horizons musically. So when I think of Cliff, that’s what I think…that’s just kind of variety and unpredictability, you know.
What are some of the bands he turned you on to?
First of all, he was classically trained and really knew his way around classical music. He actually studied classical music at college. So he’s sitting there talking about Johann Sebastian Bach, talking about some of these kind of cool classical things. And I had heard some of these words thrown around when Richie Blackmore was talking about his influences, but it was not something I had ever been exposed to.
Then he was also really…you know, this whole Southern thing. I mean, obviously I was aware of Skynyrd and had an appreciation for some of their heavier moments. But he was so immersed in Skynyrd and .38 Special and ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers and all of these things that kind of came in the wake of that Black Oak Arkansas. And the Outlaws and all that stuff, there was a whole kind of thing there.
He was also really into a lot of kind of progressive stuff like Yes, and Peter Gabriel, and a lot of f prog rock. And he was a hardcore Rush fanatic. Certainly I had an appreciation of Rush, but not to the level that he did. So there was a whole kind of array of things.
When I met Cliff in ’81, I had been through a lot of different musical experiences myself. But at that time, the things that were inspiring me to play music and so on were…I can’t say that Lynyrd Skynyrd was a particularly big inspiration for me to start playing drums. It was much more narrow. Iron Maiden and Deep Purple and Judas Priest and Diamond Head and Angel Witch, and the stories been told a thousand times. And the New Wave of British Heavy Metal stuff, and Cliff was just so wide in his scope. I played him Diamond Head. He liked some of their stuff, he liked some of Iron Maiden’s energy. He liked Witchfinder General, some of that stuff. But he also, he was a little more selective in what he liked, where me and James were more sort of like, Dude, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, it rocks! Where some of it you can argue 20, 30 years later was not as good some of the other stuff. There were hit and misses in there.
But Cliff was sort of into Peter Gabriel, the Police. Some of the stuff, I mean, it wasn’t the enemy because I was aware of the fact that there was musical integrity there. But I can’t tell you I knew much about what the Police were doing other then five songs I’d heard on the radio. But all of the sudden, in between the Diamond Head tapes and the Iron Maiden tapes being played on the tour buses and in the shitty vans, the fuckin’ Police album Zenyattà Mondatta would come on. Or what was that Yes album? 90125 or whatever. Some of that stuff would come on. It would just be nice. He loved to play some early ZZ Top. I just didn’t really know my way around Tres Hombres or the rest of those albums until Cliff started pounding them in our direction.
What do you think of him when you look back at it all now?
He was really cool. It was, obviously other than losing a brother, it would’ve been the more… I would’ve been interested to see what else he could’ve contributed, because it felt like we were just getting started. We just started playing “Orion” again on the last run, in the last two weeks . So playing “Orion,” I think we played it like three times in the last two weeks. You sit there and all of a sudden go, Fuck! What a, just, incredible piece of music. And just so unique. And it would’ve been interesting to see what else would’ve been in that vast well of stuff that he could’ve shared with the rest of us. That will forever be the curiosity element. But I’m so glad that I got a chance to play with him for a couple, three years. And got a chance to know him, and got a chance to drink with him, and all the shenanigans that probably shouldn’t be printed in a nice, family publication like Revolver. But it definitely was a pretty nutty time, and at the time we certainly embraced what life was offering us. And accelerated it to a “mach 10,” as James used to say on stage.
Earlier this year, pyromaniacal metal outfit West of Hell released their debut full-length, Spiral Empire. A fiery personality behind the kit, drummer Andrew Hulme offers here his picks for the five drummers who have influenced him the most.
1. Vinnie Paul, Pantera “Cowboys from Hell was the first metal album I bought when I was 12. Vinnie Paul was the first metal drummer that had a big impact on me.”
2. Nick Menza, Megadeth “I pretty much learned how to play drums to Rust in Peace. At that point I had never taken lessons. That album and Nick Menza were my drum teacher.”
3. Gene Hoglan, Death “I was about 19 when I first heard Gene. I couldn’t get over the complexity of Symbolic and Individual Thought Patterns. It was the heaviest thing I’d heard at that point. It took me years to wrap my head around what Gene was doing on those albums.”
4. Lars Ulrich, Metallica “As much as people slag on the guy for his playing, it’s the simplicity of his style that I like. It’s mostly his slow groove beats that’ve rubbed off on me.”
5. Chris Adler, Lamb of God “Ashes of the Wake was another massively inspiring album. But mainly it was the fact that I learned that he was around 20 when he first got real serious about drumming. I was about the same age when I got heavy into playing. It reassured me that I wasn’t too old to start playing at a high level.”
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This past weekend was the historic, first-ever Orion Music + More festival, Metallica’s very own two-day extravaganza featuring dozens of bands, comedians, lifestlye tents and much, much more (read a full recap here).
Somehow, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich took some time out of his busy day on Sunday to check in from Orion and give fans a bit of a progress report. Check out the video below.
Were you there? Tell us what you thought of the first-annual Orion Music + More festival in the comments below!
Speaking to Guitar World last week, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed that Lars Ulrich’s contribution to the band’s upcoming Orion Music + More festival’s “lifestyle tents” would be a film festival.
Now, in the below video, Lars reveals the details of his “Hit the Lights” tent, which will featured a screening of Mission to Lars, a documentary feature centered on one fan’s quest to meet his idol.
The Orion Music + More festival is set to take place June 23 and 24 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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In an interview with Rolling Stone, Metallica recently discussed the details of their next album, which according to drummer Lars Ulrich, the band are “About seven, eight songs into.”
Ulrich went onto say about the follow-up to 2008′s Death Magnetic: “We do it in rounds. We come up with something, we leave it, go to the next thing, come up with something basic, leave it and circle back around. Next month we’ll go back and start embellishing: ‘Let’s double that one part and come up with a middle bit.’”
Guitarist Kirk Hammett also said that the album would differ musically from its predecessor. “If Death Magnetic was a logical successor to [futureusgallery1988's] …And Justice For All, the next album will be a heavier ‘Black Album.’”
“We’re not going to the depths of complexity that we did for Death Magnetic,” Hammett goes onto say. “The stuff we’re coming up with is more groove-oriented, a heavier version of what we were doing in the early 90s.”
Coincidentally, Metallica will be playing their 1991 landmark self-titled record at several European festivals this summer.
“Right now, I’m thinking shorter, more to-the-point,” confirmed Ulrich about the musical direction of the new material..
Ulrich and Hammett also discussed the reports, which were confirmed last week, that Metallica are working on a 3D movie. “We didn’t want to do it at first,” Hammett admits. “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.”
According to Ulrich, though, the film will be a lot more than just concert footage. “Imagine if you took [futureusgallery1976 Led Zeppelin film] The Song Remains The Same, which is 75 percent concert, 25 percent other stuff, and flipped it around,” says Ulrich. “And all the non-concert footage, instead of being about the band members, is a story that unfolds, set against the backdrop of the concert.”
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Metallica have released a four-song EP, titled Beyond Magnetic, today. The four previously unreleased tracks were recorded during sessions for their 2008 Death Magnetic album, but didn’t make the cut at the time. The EP will be available exclusively on iTunes for one week only.
“During the Death Magnetic album sessions in 2007 and 2008, we originally recorded 14 songs,” said the band in a statement. “When it came time to pick the songs for the final album, we decided on 10 songs that you’ve all come to know over the last three years. Some of you may have heard bits and pieces of those other songs on ‘Mission Metallica’ (remember ‘Mission Metallica’?!) or heard rumors about them during the recording process, and wondered, What ever happened to those other four songs???.
“We kept them in the vault and decided to pull them just for this special celebration, so here are the four leftover tracks from the Death Magnetic sessions. They are ROUGH mixes, unfinished to their original degree of mixing from March ’08. These four songs were released as gift to our closest fans, the members of our Fan Club, to enjoy. Now they’re being made available to you.”
The thrash legends played one of the tracks each night during their 30th anniversary celebration concerts at the Fillmore in San Francisco last week. The band were joined for the performances by a host of special guests, including former members Dave Mustaine and Jason Newsted, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Jerry Cantrell, Glenn Danzig, and Kid Rock. The shows closed with drummer Lars Ulrich telling fans to anticipate news in mid-January, 2012, about something special happening next June.
Beyond Magnetic Track List:
1. “Hate Train”
2. “Just A Bullet Away”
3. “Hell And Back”
4. “Rebel Of Babylon”
Lou Reed and Metallica have posted a 60-second electronic press kit for their upcoming album Lulu, which comes out November 1. The clip, which you can watch below, shows Reed, along with Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, discussing the record.
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Legendary British metallers Judas Priest are to release a new compilation album, but with a twist: The featured songs have been selected by the band’s friends and peers from the hard rock/metal community. Artists whose picks feature on The Chosen Few include: Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Slipknot/Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor, Alice Cooper, guitarist Zakk Wylde, and Korn frontman Jonathan Davis. The album is set for release on October 11, with explanations given for all of the song choices featured. Full track-listing below:
01. “Diamonds and Rust” (1977) – chosen by Joe Elliott (Def Leppard)
02. “Dissident Aggressor” (1977) – chosen by Steve Vai and Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche)
03. “Exciter” (1978) – chosen by Accept
04. “Beyond the Realms of Death” (1978) – chosen by Lars Ulrich (Metallica)
05. “Delivering the Goods” (1979) – chosen by Kerry King (Slayer)
06. “The Green Manalishi” (with the Two-Pronged Crown) (1979) – chosen by David Coverdale (Whitesnake) and Randy Blythe (Lamb of God)
07. “The Ripper” (1979) – chosen by Ozzy Osbourne
08. “Victim of Changes” (1979) – chosen by James Hetfield (Metallica)
09. “Breaking the Law” (1980) – chosen by Lemmy (Motörhead)
10. “Rapid Fire” (1980) – chosen by Vinnie Paul (Pantera, Hellyeah)
11. “Grinder” (1980) – chosen by Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society)
12. “Living After Midnight” (1980) – chosen by Alice Cooper and Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath)
13. “Screaming for Vengeance” (1982) – chosen by Slash (Guns N’ Roses)
14. “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” (1982) – chosen by Klaus Meine (Scorpions) & Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour)
15. “The Sentinel” (1984) – chosen by Chris Jericho (Fozzy)
16. “Turbo Lover” (1986) – chosen by Jonathan Davis (Korn)
17. “Painkiller” (1990) – chosen by Joe Satriani