Lars Ulrich Announces Solo Album Made Entirely Of Simple Drum Fills And Snare Rolls
The Metallica drummer is finally giving fans the unvarnished sound of a man reaching a chorus and deciding the snare should handle it.
After more than four decades of sharing the spotlight with guitars, bass, vocals, and the word “yeah,” Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is finally ready to let the world hear what happens when all of that gets out of the way.
Ulrich announced Tuesday that his debut solo album, Lars Ulrich Plays The Drums, will be released later this year, giving fans 41 uninterrupted minutes of simple drum fills, snare rolls, cymbal crashes, and the occasional pause where listeners are encouraged to imagine a riff that never arrives.
“This is Lars at his most Lars,” said Brendan Voss, senior vice president of rhythmic content at Hihat Holdings, the boutique label handling the release. “We removed the distractions people normally associate with Metallica, like guitar notes, bass frequencies, chord changes, and James Hetfield shouting the name of a table. What remains is pure commitment to the bit, except nobody involved is calling it a bit.”
The album reportedly opens with “Fill Number One,” a confident three-second roll across two toms, before moving into “Fill Number Two,” which sources described as “similar, but with more face.” Other tracks include “Snare Roll For The People In The Cheap Seats,” “Kick, Kick, Hat, Hat,” “The One Where He Counts In Twice,” and the eight-minute centerpiece “Is This Too Much Hi-Hat? No.”
According to production notes, Ulrich recorded the project using 13 drum kits, four trash cans, one conference table, and a snare drum he described as “definitely angry about something.” Engineers were also instructed to preserve every grunt, chair squeak, and tiny moment where the sticks hovered over the kit as if deciding whether the song needed a chorus.
“There are no vocals, no solos, no melodies, and no lyrics to memorize,” Voss added. “It is just Lars entering, filling, rolling, and leaving. In a market full of overproduced records, that kind of literalism takes courage.”
A limited-edition version will include a bonus disc called Just The Count-Ins, featuring 22 separate tracks of Ulrich yelling “one, two” with varying levels of urgency.
For fans who have spent years insisting the drums are actually the most interesting part, the wait is nearly over. For everyone else, the snare roll has already begun.