Lars Ulrich allegedly made James Hetfield angry at one of Metallica’s recent concerts.
In a video shared by a channel named Ataraxia, Hetfield turns to Lars and says:
“Slow it down.”
Some Fan Comments On The Video
It is a claim of fans after seeing this video. Some had lots of comments under the clip. One of them wrote:
“James is pissed. It’s not just playing too fast that’s the issue. It’s the sloppiness and fluctuations in tempo that is really off putting. They need to sit Lars down and have a talk to him.”
Another one praised Hetfield’s professionalism and said:
“Wow! James was so pissed but didn’t confront Lars! Instead, he started the next song. Very PRO of him!”
One other individual also shared their own interpretation:
“Kirk gave James a WTF, pissed-off look to say something was off. Kirk and James both looked like they were rushing to try and keep up to Lars, causing it to sound like crap. The timing and rhythm was off right from the start because Lars drank a couple Monsters and was running away from them. And of course, there is no bass to try and keep time off either. The song is not as fast as Lars was playing it here.”
Previous Altercations Between Lars And James
Ulrich and Hetfield have had their tense moments in the past. During the making of their ‘St. Anger’ album, the two had a heated argument where Ulrich almost attacked Hetfield. This incident, happening after Hetfield’s rehab break and his proposal for new group rules, was shown in the documentary ‘Some Kind of Monster.’ The tension peaked when Ulrich yelled ‘F*ck’ in Hetfield’s face.
Metallica’s psychotherapist, Phil Towle, revisited this moment in a special Metal Hammer magazine issue:
“These guys are waiting for James. Waiting, waiting, waiting… not only waiting but wondering whether James was ever going to come back. They were scared it was over. And when James comes marching back and says, ‘I can’t work between certain hours and certain hours,’ Lars was really pissed off.”
Towle continued:
“Like, ‘What the f*ck? We’ve been waiting for you, and you’ve controlled us for ten months. And he probably felt that James had controlled them for more than ten months, right? So this was the collision of years of frustration.”
It wasn’t the only altercation between James and Lars. On their 2021 guest appearance on the Howard Stern Show, they said in their early days, Hetfield punched Ulrich during a gig over a disagreement about which song to start the encore with. Ulrich wanted a track with a drum intro, which annoyed Hetfield.
You can watch their video from the show below.