Lars Ulrich On S&M2: “Doing Projects Like This Makes It Fun To Be In Metallica”

Metallica are no strangers to taking on surprising and creative new projects beyond their studio records (and occasionally within them) – and with their epic new S&M2 release finally on the horizon, drummer Lars Ulrich has explained how these endeavours keep him fuelled and wanting more.

Speaking to Kerrang! alongside guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo for this week's awesome Cover Story, the sticksman reveals that taking risks is a huge part of the metal legends' career longevity, and it continues to keep him excited within his day job.

Read this: Album review: Metallica – S&M2

“Doing projects like this makes it fun to be in Metallica,” Lars enthuses. “There’s always a moment where you sit and wonder if it might not work, but that’s kind of part of the dare. And you can’t help yourself – you have to fuckin’ look at it and turn over those rocks and see what happens. We’re just so curious and I’m very proud of the fact that we always respect that curiosity and protect it from ourselves or talking ourselves out of it. All these things help us as musicians and makes Metallica more interesting to us and to other people also. But you never really know, but you learn to trust along the way.”

He continues of how this mindset is currently playing into Metallica's future: “It inspires you to keep going, it inspires you to continue to want to connect and create music. Doing all these things – movies, S&M, whiskey, doing this, doing a collaboration with someone – this all just fuels you to stay creatively connected and inspired and just want to be in a band. All these deviations from the path forward are super fun, and it makes you come to a more traditional Metallica thing like writing and recording an album with new spunk and recharged batteries.”

Metallica’s S&M2 is released Friday, August 28 – pre-order CD, vinyl and limited edition deluxe boxsets now.

Read this: The 20 greatest Metallica songs – ranked