Lars Ulrich says he’s still in awe of the fact that Metallica wrote classic album Master Of Puppets in just eight weeks.
The breakthrough title was released 30 years ago today (March 3) and set the band on course to becoming the giants of thrash metal.
And the drummer reflects that it would be all-but impossible to repeat the experience.
Ulrich tells Rolling Stone: “There’s a spark, or spontaneity, or impulsiveness that happens when you’re in your 20s. We wrote Master Of Puppets in probably eight weeks over that summer. Nowadays it takes me eight weeks just to drive to the studio.
“It’s like, what the fuck did we do in the summer of ’85, where we could give birth to that from the first note to the last in eight weeks?’
“Death Magnetic took us probably 18 months from when we started writing to when we started recording. On this current record it probably took us nine months. How the fuck do you write a record like Master Of Puppets in eight weeks?”
Metallica bassist Cliff Burton was killed in a tour bus accident later in 1986. “That’s crazy – 30 years? Fuck,” Ulrich says.
“Cliff was just so unique. He was fiercely protective of his own kind of thing. We look back on those years and we were all awkward and disenfranchised. He revelled in being unique and autonomous – and that’s obviously one of the bigger messages of Metallica.”
The band have been named ambassadors for this year’s Record Store Day, and they’ll release a charity live album to mark the event.
