It’s always funny to see how we all love each other so much…

And fame doesn’t have much to do with it, I guess.

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I’ve just found this video with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett trying to learn a riff that just doesn’t want to get in there…

Honestly I amused myself watching this and I remembered about asking myself, years ago, how they did that famous ending part in “One”. I have always considered that part (the speed part) the result of work, not inspiration, because you actually need to count and remember in order to get things right. Especially when that part implies that the whole band stop together, all at once. Imagine how it would have sounded if Kirk would have played one more note when everybody suddenly stopped…

And I love the face he makes at the end…

Now Stumble that!

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Warning! To guitar players: this post is not about guitars, it is about drums! To drummers: the title is a joke, relax

Well, these days I’ve started to work with my band two songs from Metallica, Nothing else matters and Whiskey in the jar. OK, I must be in the mood for Metallica these days, I guess, but working on these songs made me think of how important the drummer really is.

I mean, if you listen Nothing else matters, with a musician’s ear, you’ll hear Lars Ulrich’s drums all over. His style of playing drums is almost trademarked.

You probably already know it, you know Metallica and you recognize Lars out of 1000 drummers, isn’t it? The fact is that Lars had such a big influence on Metallica’s sound that without him, Metallica would have never been the same, no matter what other drummer would have taken his place.

I mean, from my experience, changing the drummer in a band is a big and I mean REALLY BIG thing! Working a song with a drummer will give a particular balance to that song, that another drummer may not be able to get it. I’ve played with quite a few drummers so far and I can tell you that I’ve felt every one of them as being different.

Our previous drummer was a Limp Bizkit fan, his way of playing drums was modern, energetic, very interesting. When we started to play alternative, his presence was exactly what we needed at that moment.

Our current drummer is an old school rock fan: Whitesnake, Metallica, Maiden, UDO, Accept, etc. Totally different way of playing drums…

Lars has his own style, as it happens with all great musicians and his presence in the band is, I guess, along with Hetfield’s voice, the very definition of Metallica’s sound.

If you want to test this for yourself, ask your drummer to play Nothing else matters, the same way Lars Ulrich plays, and then start a chat with him about it! You may find it interesting…

You know, there is that joke that says the drummer is not a musician, but he is that guy hanging around musicians…Funny joke, but not true at all in this case. Actually, if you think about it, how many drummers can you think of that can be named out of 100 drummers the same way Ulrich can? I know there are thousands great drummers, but how many have their style so unique that you will immediately know who’s playing there?

Well? Who would you name?

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I don’t know why, following the 2 articles of a few days ago about Metallica, I started to ask myself a few questions like what is Jason Newsted doing now? So I looked on YT and found a couple of videos with him playing with Ozzy and then from a suggested link, I found this video, a short overview of how Metallica found the new bass player, Robert Trujillo.

Very cool video, I must admit, I had a great time watching it so I said why not share it with you here? So, here it is, in case you don’t know it already!

I found it very interesting that the guys from Metallica were not looking for skills, since I guess at that level, they are all there, but they were looking for THE VIBE…

By the way, considering the fact that there are other bass players in this video from well known bands, isn’t it a bit embarrassing for them to be in that video? I mean, man, I saw you in that video…you didn’t make it…

What do you think?

Hey, I just realized, the blond guy in the video, with the band, is the same one that sleeps on the sofa in Nothing else matters, right(Bob Rock)? Man, watching again the video of Nothing else matters made me remember why I love Metallica…

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I was listening a radio show in my car while coming here and the guy there war reviewing Metallica’s new record from his personal point of view and I realized that I haven’t listened anything from that record so far. I think I just missed it. Also I don’t watch that much music oriented television these days due to the current trends in music so if it was on TV(and I guess it was), I missed it also.

But intrigued by the review of this guy, from which I strongly remember 2 things, the fact that the record has an intentionally rugged sound, not heavily edited, to preserve the spirit and that guitar solos are back, I looked for a video on YT and I found this one, The day that never comes.

I must say I love Metallica’s ballads, I even liked the sound change on ReLoad, but this song…I don’t get it.

It doesn’t have anything, doesn’t bring anything to me, I think that if it wouldn’t be the video I would not even have the patience to listen it to the end. To me, it sounds like something done in a moment when they had no inspiration to write a good song. I will try to listen some more songs, maybe I just don’t like this one but I will find others that I will like, but this one, being promoted, it should be one of the representative songs for the album, one to make you buy the new record.

Is it me or you feel the same about it?

PS: However, something’s going on, 8 minutes song, rock solo, thrashy/speed riffs, rock feeling. No melody, but hey, maybe it’s just me.

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I was always very intrigued by bands (rock bands) that grow as economical entities, and here I could think here of Iron Maiden which is told to own quite a bit of possessions (lands, investments), the plane that Bruce flies, etc.

Another example is Metallica which took their business very seriously and restricted the usage of their name (which is trademarked, OK, no issue here) in a very aggressive way. Maybe you remember the lipstick issue of 1-2 years ago, with that lipstick manufacturer that named his latest product Metallica. Bad business idea…

The reason I started this post is a news about Robert Trujillio who had a business deal with Fernandes Guitars long before joining Metallica, Fernandes Guitars being allowed to use Trujillo’s image in promotional materials, while providing him a load of custom bass guitars.

I don’t know the exact terms of the contract, but I do know that Metallica has a long going contract with ESP Guitars, which you probably are already aware of (who wouldn’t be!); I remember a large poster I had on my room wall about 10 years ago with Hetfield playing an ESP, moment when I was actually very interested in ESP guitars. Whatever…

Now, coming back to the point, Metallica sent Fernandes Guitars a cease and desist letter demanding them to no longer use Robert Trujillo’s name…

Here in Romania we have a saying: what came first? The egg or the chicken?

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That made me smile, it is something else compared to the crunchy, mad metal of Metallica! That’s just Kirm Hammett goofing around

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