Even as Metallica rides high on the charts with its new 72 Seasons collection, drummer Lars Ulrich says the band has more than enough material to last them through the end.
During a chat with Revolver, Ulrich spoke about all the unrealized and unmined musical bits the band still hasn't realized: “We have enough ideas for another 20 records. We will never get all the riffs and the ideas to fruition because history dictates that that's just not gonna happen. There's never a conversation about should we make new music as in should we not make new music. New music is a vital, vital, huge, huge, significant part of who we are.”
Ulrich said that he views how well an album does in a completely different light than he did when Metallica was coming up, explaining, “I would say a big thing for me about the success of this record is the joy of making it. So, in the past I think there have been times where you had to make a record. The record company (would tell you), 'Now you've gotta go make a record.' Those days are long gone. Now we make music because we want to, and we do it with joy and with a sense of appreciation. And we're not (going), 'Oh my God. There's an idea. What happens if that idea doesn't play out exactly how I want it?' — all that craziness.”
Not too long ago, Lars Ulrich told us how the band's assorted riffs and jamming gets shaped into new Metallica tunes: “We have all these riffs and it's kind of puzzle-like. We just sort of go through, y'know, that process and continue to revisit and 'Oh, wait a minute, that's really cool the way those two fit together but it doesn't really work with that other thing, so why don't we take those two and put them with that other thing, y'know, Number Seven from over here' — or whatever. So that's very much our process and we just sort of keep going through it until it sort of eventually turns into songs.”
Metallica performs on Saturday (April 29th) at Amsterdam's Johan Cruijff Arena.