Lars Ulrich on how Kurt Cobain changed the landscape of music: “He was a genius”

Metallica is one of the few metal bands that can claim they never shied away from risks, even if it meant making some of the most questionable decisions in metal history. They were always willing to go down with the ship despite facing potential hatred from fans. While their instincts often paid off, as with The Black Album, Lars Ulrich knew something had to change when he saw Nirvana hit it big for the first time.

For a brief moment in the early 1990s, it felt like genuine rock and roll was about to make a comeback. Sure, the hair metal bands still had a tight grip on every major label in the world, but Metallica’s success alongside other exciting acts like Guns N’ Roses meant that people didn’t have to worry about guys in hairspray trying to become millionaires off of doing the bare minimum.

Metallica helped make rock more rootsy, but that wasn’t nearly authentic enough. As much as James Hetfield wasn’t looking to be the pretty boy onstage, no one could really identify with this beastly man singing about nightmares on ‘Sad But True’ and ‘Enter Sandman’. Every teen has felt angry once in their life, though, and ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was everything they had been looking for.

There’s a chance that even Kurt Cobain didn’t realise how big his band was going to get, but once the video for his trademark song blew up, the public reacted to it like they were seeing a new social movement. Metallica had practically become too big to fail, but Ulrich knew that the future of music depended on where Nirvana would go next.

Looking back on that time, Ulrich said that he felt the music world shift when he saw them perform, saying, “What else can I add to Kurt Cobain that everybody else hasn’t said? He was a genius, and he changed the musical landscape forever. End of story.” Although Ulrich would be less diplomatic when poking fun at the band after Cobain’s untimely passing, the future of Metallica really depended on Nirvana as well.

Despite Cobain loving the sound of the band’s early days on Kill ‘Em All, the next few years would see Metallica doing everything they could to grunge-ify themselves. Across their Load era of albums, the band would try to get in tune with their angsty side while also trying to be trendy, almost like they were attempting a weird mix of Alice in Chains-like spookiness with a U2-level of irony.

Metal fans were certainly pissed, but Ulrich stood by their change in direction, thinking that it was better to go along with what was popular then. It might not have made for the most fleshed-out songs, but when rock and roll changes that drastically, it’s almost more dangerous if you decide to ignore it entirely and do the same old schtick.

Ulrich could have tried as hard as he could to make Metallica into the flavour of the month during grunge’s prime, but he forgot one major difference between him and Nirvana. Metallica were always going to be metal first, and when it comes to all great grunge bands, that angst comes from deep within rather than the fashion they sported.