25 years down the road from perfection

Honestly Lars, how do you say shit like this with a straight face?

"We have a tendency to be pretty adventurous in Metallica. We're not afraid to move around on the musical map a little bit ..."

Indeed, Mr. Ulrich, those of us who persevered through the band's acid jazz phase can attest to the veracity of that statement. Yet, when you chose to release an entire album of Ladysmith Black Mambazo covers? Pure genius!


Lars goes on (and on) to talk yammer about the challenges of putting together the Big 4 tour (Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth), which I imagine mostly have to do with scheduling hip replacements and wrangling a sufficient supply of Centrum Silver. Beyond that, what? Making sure Scott Ian could get his shifts covered at Burger King? Getting everyone to stop picking on Dave Mustaine just to see if he'll cry (again)?


Somewhere in the basement of my parents' McMansion there is a rack of cassette tapes. Somewhere among them is the copy of Master of Puppets that my girlfriend gave me in 1987. Not far from that there is Anthrax's Among the Living, Slayer's Reign In Blood and Megadeth's Peace Sells, But Who's Buying? I'm suddenly able to understand my father's endless playings of Quadrophenia on boozy Sunday afternoons.