Metallica: Under new anger management

By KATHERINE TULICH

Heavy rock band Metallica are both famous and infamous in the annals of rock'n'roll history.

Famous because they are the world's most popular hard rock band, selling an unprecedented 85 million albums over the past two decades.

Infamous as their story reads like a list of rock cliches ... deaths, lineup changes, drug and alcohol addictions and rehab stints. Infamous, too, for daring to take on music download website Napster, which undoubtedly eroded much of their global fan base.

But if the tale of Metallica reads as one of the great rock'n'roll survival stories, their enigmatic leader and founder, drummer Lars Ulrich, has more mundane matters on his mind when we meet, like picking up his kids from school.

He's running late for our scheduled interview at Metallica Central in San Rafael, a 45-minute drive north over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

As Ulrich hurriedly pulls up the driveway he apologises for his tardiness. His 5-year-old son is playing after-school soccer and he had to be there to pick him up.

"I couldn't be late. I can't keep him waiting," he explains.

The mythic Metallica headquarters resembles a school playground more than the centre of gravity for hard rock fans.

If dedicated fans were able to decipher its whereabouts in the midst of nondescript industrial surrounds, they'd likely turn around once they were admitted into its electronic gates, convinced they were at the wrong address. Chalk hopscotch trails line the driveway while kids greet you, driving up and down in plastic models of trucks and cars.

Sure, loud music is coming from inside, but it turns out to be a precocious toddler playing havoc on a deserted drum kit.

"We like to keep this as much about family as possible," says Ulrich, who also has a 2-year-old son. "The great thing about this is you can bring the kids to work. My wife is a doctor, so you can't really take the kids to the hospital, but having them here is great."

Metallica are set to release St Anger, their first studio album in five years. It comes after a difficult period for the band when they were convinced they had no future.

"I was really contemplating the end of the road for Metallica two years ago," admits Ulrich, who still speaks with a distinct Danish inflection (he migrated to the US as a teenager). "I was really starting to think of worse-case scenarios."

Like working in a fish and chips shop, perhaps?

"No, not quite," he says, laughing. "Fish and chips shop was not the first on my list, but it was probably fourth or fifth."

Ulrich (whose father was professional tennis player Torben Ulrich) met Metallica singer James Hetfield in Los Angeles when they were teens. Ulrich was contemplating a future in tennis but found, in Hetfield, a musical soulmate.

They shared a love of British hard rockers Motorhead, and began to make their own fledgling attempts at songwriting and recording demos.

After fleshing out the lineup with Kirk Hammett on guitar and Clifford Lee Burton on bass, the group's uncompromising rock soon found an audience disenchanted with the 80s pretty-boy pop metal of Van Halen and Bon Jovi.

Metallica became known for their sophisticated, often complex song structures and lyrics that dealt not only with teen angst, despair and fear but deeper issues such as political justice, violence and drug addiction.

Their Black album was considered a rock masterpiece, selling 15 million copies worldwide. "Metallica has always existed in its own world. It's never been a part of any wave or any fashion or any kind of scene. We just existed in our own little bubble and that's probably why we are still around," says Ulrich.

"I have always considered Metallica to be outsiders. It was the mainstream that came over to us."

But the future seemed dim after the release of their last studio album, Re-Load, in 1997. Bassist Jason Newsted left the band under acrimonious circumstances in January 2001 (he had replaced previous bassist Burton who was killed in 1986 when their tour bus skidded off an icy road in Sweden). The hard living and hard partying that had earned the band the nickname of "Alcoholica" caught up with singer Hetfield, who checked himself into rehab last year.

"We had no communication from James for months. That's when we were convinced that this was the end of Metallica," says Ulrich.

But Hetfield resurfaced, and the band went into the studio last May with longtime producer Bob Rock filling in on bass to record what would become St Anger.

"We were all standing around pretending we weren't watching as James put his guitar on," says Ulrich. "Then he turned on his amp and within five seconds we knew he still had it. I have never been around someone who has been through rehab, so I didn't know what to expect. It was an awkward time, but once we got back into it and realised the music was still vibrant, then I knew we would be OK."

Ulrich insists that Hetfield's sobriety doesn't mean Metallica are now a band of teetotallers. "Well, there are still three of us that drink. James needed to go do what he needed to do, but the rest of us still enjoy an alcohol beverage of choice," Ulrich smiles.

"Certainly things are not as relentless as they used to be. Swinging from the rafters and the chandeliers is thankfully behind us, but Metallica has not turned into one of those bands that has rules and regulations. We're respectful to James' needs in the same way that he's respectful to everyone else's needs."

Newsted's replacement, Rob Trujillo, who played bass for Ozzy Osbourne and Suicidal Tendencies, joined the band three months ago.

"When Jason left we decided we weren't ready to go through that process of finding a new bass player, but I have to say Rob has fitted in so well.

"It's like he has been with the band forever. We are in a very comfortable place right now," says Ulrich.

Reflecting on the band's battles with Napster, he says it now seems like a bad dream.

When the music file-sharing website exploded on to the scene three years ago, Metallica were its most vocal opponents. They not only responded with copyright infringement suits against Napster, but demanded the estimated 335,000 Napster users who had downloaded a Metallica track for free be permanently barred from the service.

Fans responded vehemently, seeing the group as rich rock stars unwilling to compromise for their fans. Other bands soon backed out of supporting Metallica's argument, afraid to alienate their fan base.

"We really got sideswiped by that whole thing and I have to say we didn't see it coming," says Ulrich.

"Our attitude was someone was messing with our business so let's deal with it. I guess we didn't understand the magnitude of it at the time. I really thought we were like Custer leading the cavalry, only when we looked behind us there was no one there.

"There was no victory, no gloating, but I'm proud we took a stance. If anything, I think what we achieved was we put the whole issue of downloading music to the forefront."

With the difficult times behind them, Ulrich says the members of Metallica are more positive and motivated. Their new album is a full frontal assault, relentless on every track. It swirls with aggressive emotion yet ironically comes at a time when the band are most at peace.

"I think this album is testament to the fact that it's possible to make an aggressive, brutal album without being fuelled by negative energy," says Ulrich. "Metallica was fuelled by negative energy for 20 years. Now we have spent a lot of time working on ourselves and on our relationships, and we have turned that completely around."

* St Anger is released on Monday.