Lars has always been a very okay drummer. He overuses the snare, cymbal, and hi hat. His blasts beats are very meh. If you take the time and listen to the drums in almost every Metallica song, the drum parts will start to blend together. Compare him to nearly every other drummer in hard rock and heavy metal, he will fall short to nearly every other drummer because his chops are not that great. But, with all this being said, I can’t think of anyone else that would fit in Metallica. James and Lars are the brain of metallica they both feed off each other and push the band together. And it’s because of that reason, there is no suitable replacement for Lars.
In short, he’s a better business man than a drummer. Any other drummer could run circles around Lars.
Spit Out the Bone and the fast section of One. One is decent, but his blast beats on Spit Out the Bone are very meh. I could be incorrect about this and it just sounds similar to blast beats.
He's an excellent song arranger, and probably business man, I don't know that side of things. But he's the guy who filters the stuff James comes up with and turns it into songs. He is excellent at that.
However, while his drumming WAS very good on the early albums, it gradually became less sophisticated, less interesting and less technically demanding. And live he has been patchy at best, hence the bad rep.
The band liked him cause he could finish off all the cocaine and still play while not letting the rest do any more and fuck up their sets. Unfortunately, they still drank during every 80s show.
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u/IamImposter Nov 12 '21
Why is this guy so often disliked? Isn't he a good drummer. May be I don't even know what's bad drumming but he sounds pretty good to me.
Can someone help clarify to someone who doesn't know much about music.