Metallica’s 2003 album ‘St. Anger’ has been criticized by fans for its snare drum sound since it came out. During a recent performance that was captured by a fan, James Hetfield couldn’t hide his dislike of the snare drum. Between songs, Hetfield looked back at Lars Ulrich to see whether he was ready for another track. He asked:
“Snare drum good?”
Ulrich replied with the St. Anger snare tone. Hetfield responded to the drums and said:
“Oh god, St. Anger again. Please, no more torture.”
This recent concert was not the only time James had joked about the snare drums on stage. Last fall, during one of Metallica’s performances, fans booed them after they played ‘St. Anger.’ After the audience’s reaction, Hetfield chose to joke about the snare drums on stage. The rocker said to the crowd:
“Alright. That’s from your favorite album, ‘St. Anger.’ Oh, come on. It’s growing on you now. Just give it a little more time, buddy. You’ll get it.”
After jokingly trying to convince the audience to give ‘St. Anger’ another chance; he added:
“Okay, eight more songs from ‘St. Anger.’ Ready? Yeah, just kidding.”
Even though James jokes about the tone on stage, Lars shared in a 2020 interview with Eddie Trunk that he doesn’t regret his choice of the snare tone. He explained:
“I stand behind it a hundred percent because, at that moment, that was the truth. We were working on a riff. Hetfield was playing a riff in the control room. I ran into the tracking room and played a couple of beats over this riff, and I forgot to turn the snare on. And then we were listening back to it, and I was like, ‘Wow! That sound kind of fits that riff, and it sounds weirdly odd and cool.'”
You can watch James Hetfield’s live reaction to Lars Ulrich playing ‘St. Anger’ snare tone and his 2022 reaction below.
