ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: METALLICA'S LARS ULRICH ANSWERS OUR STUPID QUESTIONS

BY DAN SNIERSON • @DANSNIERSON

Metallica has returned with their first studio album in eight years, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. And when the metal gods go heavy, we go light: EW asked drummer Lars Ulrich to trade his sticks for shtick and play along with a few Stupid Questions.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me some things about the new album that could be applied to every other album you’ve released.
LARS ULRICH: The new album is the best album we’ve ever done. It’s destined to make lots of people happy — and a few people upset.

Rank these Metallica songs in order of their hopefulness: “Creeping Death,” “Harvester of Sorrow,” “To Live Is to Die,” “Broken, Beat & Scarred”
They’re all tied for last… “Creeping Death” is actually partially inspired by the OG Ten Commandments movie, the one with Charlton Heston in it, which somehow, in some perverse way, has some sort of message of hope buried in there somewhere. That’s second-to-last.

In 1981, James Hetfield responded to your ad in the Recycler that was seeking people to jam with. What were the other ads you placed in that issue? Were you selling an Atari?
I did not have anything of that status at the time. I can tell you what I wasn’t selling, which was soap, because Hetfield’s standard story when he describes our first meeting in the wake of the ad was that he thought I smelled very European and hadn’t washed in years.

THE EDGE: REVIEW: METALLICA – HARDWIRED…TO SELF-DESTRUCT

How does one go about trying to condense all of Metallica’s achievements, accolades and back story into just a few short sentences? Quite simply, you can’t. There’s never been a band quite like the simply monolithic Metallica – perhaps the most enduring musical force on the planet, they are never short on heavy riffs, fist pounding drums, and bad-ass metal music. With tenth LP Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, the band aims high with its first ever double album, clocking in at nearly 80 minutes in total. After a resurgence with 2008’s critically acclaimed Death Magnetic, Metallica’s return is yet another epic and rousing (if a little over-stuffed) piece of heavy goodness.

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GIG SOUP: METALLICA ‘HARDWIRED…TO SELF-DESTRUCT’

It’s been eight years since ‘Death Magnetic’, the longest gap there’s been between non-collaborative Metallica studio albums. For a lot of fans and critics, a return to form is a necessity, after being underwhelmed by most of what the metal heavyweights have released over the past fifteen-or-so years. Is double album ‘Hardwired…to Self-Destruct’ that return to form?

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GIGWISE: LIVE REVIEW: METALLICA LIVE AT THE HOUSE OF VANS, LONDON, 18/11/16

Tonight marks the release of Metallica’s 10th studio album since Kill ‘Em All way back in 1983. The band have chosen to play a exclusive launch show in the sort of venue they might well have started out in - cramped, packed, sweaty and crumbling in places. But this is no Los Angeles dive bar. This is The House Of Vans, the skate shoe brand’s custom built skatepark/music venue in the Old Vic Railway Tunnels near Waterloo.

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ROLLING STONE: SEE METALLICA THUNDER THROUGH 'HARDWIRED' CUTS IN FIRST EVER BBC SESSION

Metallica visited London's Maida Vale Studios to lay down their first ever BBC session. The heavy metal legends delivered a five-song in-studio performance for BBC Radio 1's Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter.
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THE GUARDIAN: METALLICA: HARDWIRED… TO SELF-DESTRUCT REVIEW – THRILLINGLY DIRECT

It’s testament to the enduring appeal of Metallica’s early work that in recent years their live setlists have included almost nothing recorded after 1991’s Black Album. To that end, their 10th album is an attempt (and a more successful one than 2008’s patchy Death Magnetic) to replicate the glories of their first three.

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‘HARDWIRED…TO SELF-DESTRUCT’ ALBUM IN NOVEMBER

Metallica will release its long-awaited new album, “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct”, on November 18 via Blackened Recordings. The two-CD/two-vinyl set is Metallica’s first studio album since 2008’s multi-platinum “Death Magnetic”. “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct” is available for pre-order at Metallica.com starting today in various configurations, including CD, vinyl, digital, deluxe, and deluxe deluxe versions. The album is produced by Greg Fidelman, who engineered and mixed “Death Magnetic”.



Disc One

01. Hardwired
02. Atlas, Rise!
03. Now That We’re Dead
04. Moth Into Flame
05. Am I Savage?
06. Halo On Fire

Disc Two

01. Confusion
02. Dream No More
03. ManUNkind
04. Here Comes Revenge
05. Murder One
06. Spit Out The Bone

Disc Three (Deluxe Edition Only)

01. Lords Of Summer
02. Riff Charge (Riff Origins)
03. N.W.O.B.H.M. A.T.M. (Riff Origins)
04. Tin Shot (Riff Origins)
05. Plow (Riff Origins)
06. Sawblade (Riff Origins)
07. RIP (Riff Origins)
08. Lima (Riff Origins)
09. 91 (Riff Origins)
10. MTO (Riff Origins)
11. RL72 (Riff Origins)
12. Frankenstein (Riff Origins)
13. CHI (Riff Origins)
14. X Dust (Riff Origins)

Metallica Unleashed

WHAT A remarkable Metallica concert in Helsinki’s Hartwell Arena 14 June. The band was more alive then ever opening up with That Was Just Your Life, followed by The End of the Line, the first two tracks off the new album Death Magnetic.

Singer and guitarist James Hetfield comments that “what goes well with the new stuff … is the old stuff,” as he pounded the stage with electric presence and high powered energy. Kirk Hammett continues to prove that he’s more than just a thrasher - he’s an extremely talented musician as lead guitarist. This was the first time I’ve seen bassist Rob Trujillo performing in person, and he was equally impressive matching the intensity of Hetfield.

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Metallica playing benefit for Rock Museum exhibit

Metallica will play a benefit concert for the Marin County Museum in San Rafael, California this September, according to the Contra Costa Times. The announcement was made by frontman James Hetfield in a video screened at a museum gala last week for the "Marin Rocks" exhibition, where attendees paid $200 a ticket to raise funds for the project. The Museum pulled the project from its original intended location in a downtown space owned by the local Masonic Lodge, citing concerns over the cost of renovating the space, its size, and the length of the lease that the Lodge was offering.

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Jason Newsted On Leaving Metallica: “I Have Never Looked Back”

Jason Newsted’s 15-year stint playing bass for one of heavy metal’s biggest acts came to an end nine years ago, when he exited Metallica for “private and personal reasons and the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love.” On April 4th, when Metallica are inducted into Cleveland, Ohio’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Newsted will be there to accept rock’s highest honor, and he’s even agreed to reunite with drummer Lars Ulrich, frontman James Hetfield and guitarist Kirk Hammett for an impromptu set he promises will include “at least one song about Satan.”
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