“Never less than great”: the hard rock classic Lars Ulrich loved more than anything
Metallica has always been the kind of band with hard rock in their veins. Although they have tried to switch things up on nearly every record they put out, fans can usually come to expect the same precision and lightning-fast speed that they heard back in the days of Master of Puppets on their later records. Outside of the raw playing, the thrash icons have made their living off of grandiose tunes, and that came from Lars Ulrich falling in love with one particular hard rock gem.
Throughout his time listening to music, though, Ulrich never strayed from heavy metal. Even when he first landed in America from Denmark, the first thing he gravitated towards was the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, learning everything he could about everyone from Judas Priest to Diamond Head to Venom whenever he went to the local record store.
But that kind of metal didn’t exist in a vacuum. It only came when bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath first got the ball rolling, and once people started hearing the bellowing riffs of Tony Iommi on songs like ‘Paranoid’, an entire generation started to make music that tried to out-heavy the person next to them.
Of all the pre-metal hard rock acts, though, Deep Purple never seemed comfortable with that label. They were certainly one of the godfathers, but looking at the twists and turns that they went down, they were more interested in pulling from everything from jazz to classical music, whether that meant Ritchie Blackmore throwing in Mozart arpeggios during ‘Highway Star’ or Jon Lord convincing the entire band to work alongside an orchestra when working with the Mk. II lineup.
When In Rock was released, though, fans got something a lot heavier than they expected. Whereas they started off as a jam band in the same vein as Vanilla Fudge, hearing Ian Gillan reach into the stratosphere on the song ‘Child in Time’ was the first time someone got to listen to something that heavy, even giving Robert Plant a run for his money in terms of raw screaming ability.
Although the song isn’t for impatient listeners at over ten minutes, Ulrich still felt that nothing compared to it, saying, “This is their most iconic moment. I’ve heard it 92,000 times, and it never sounds anything less than great.” And looking at how Metallica structures their songs, it’s not that hard for people to understand why it should counted among their biggest influences.
The majority of Metallica’s best work involves making epics, and while James Hetfield is never going to hit the same high notes that Gillan did, hearing Ian Paice set a certain mood behind the drumkit is a masterclass in restraint before unleashing hell, which is something that Ulrich has still yet to master.
Then again, no one is ever going to claim to outdo Deep Purple at their own game. They may have given the world one of the most basic rock and roll riffs for people to start with, but once everyone starts digging a little bit deeper into their back catalogue, they are in for one of the most intense performances anyone has ever given.
