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Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dave Lombardo looks back on the day he drummed in Metallica
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo has looked back on the day he drummed for Metallica. In 2004, Lombardo, along with late Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, performed with the California heavy metal superstars during their headline show at Leicestershire's Download festival 2004. The band's founding drummer Lars Ulrich had been taken ill earlier that day. Now, talking on ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson's podcast with his wife Paula, Lombardo says he sped up the songs he played with Metallica, Battery and The Four Horsemen, during rehearsal. He adds that his playing style 'kicked them in the ass a little'. 'I was grateful. I was awesome,' Lombardo says with no false modesty (via Blabbermouth). 'I have a picture in a frame, personalised frame, with all their names and everything, saying how grateful they were that I came up, I stepped up and helped them.' He continues: 'One of the real special moments was in the rehearsal. We were in one of those – I guess it was a small portable rehearsal room. They have a drum set in there, they've got their amp, they jam, get warmed up, get ready. And we were in there, and I could see their excitement when I was playing the song. They were really into it. 'And I kind of sped everything up a little bit, just kicked them in the ass a little. And it was fun, man. It was that moment that was really special.' Lombardo then remembers the set proper, calling it a 'challenge'. '[It was a] exciting, fun, grateful moment in history that will never be repeated again,' he elaborates. 'Some of Kirk's [Hammett, guitarist] commentary, which I'll keep private, was really, really funny and very complimentary and very kind from them. I have nothing but respect for those guys. I have absolute respect.' In a later interview, Ulrich explained his absence from Metallica's Download show, saying he'd suffered an anxiety attack earlier in the day. 'We'd had a heavy touring schedule in Japan, Europe, America and Australia,' he said. 'In the midst of that there were things that had come unravelled in my personal life – my family and my marriage and stuff. 'I'd had a lot of late nights and early mornings. So I woke up in Copenhagen on the Sunday morning [the day of the show], had brunch with 14 in-laws and cousins and then I got on the plane. 'I was exhausted. It was pretty fucking scary to be in a little fucking metal tube at 41,000 feet. I've never had anxiety attacks, or any kind of stress attacks, ever.' Slayer frontman Tom Araya has since joked that he thought Lombardo was going to join Metallica full-time. He also said that their set with his band's drummer made Metallica sound 'a lot more like what Metallica should sound like'. Ultimately, Lombardo would leave Slayer in 2013. The band continued with Paul Bostaph behind the kit. They retired in 2019 but announced their return last year and have five shows booked for this year, including a slot at Black Sabbath's star-studded Back To The Beginning event in Birmingham in July. Slayer are also booked to play their first headlining shows since 2019, which will take place at Blackweir Fields in Cardiff on July 3 and Finsbury Park in London on July 6. Amon Amarth, Anthrax, Mastodon, Hatebreed and Neckbreakker will support. Since his Slayer departure, Lombardo has manned the kit for a host of bands, including the Misfits, Mr Bungle, Dead Cross, Testament and Suicidal Tendencies. He co-helms the project Venamoris with Paula and the pair released their album To Cross Or To Burn last month.
The Guardian
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Indian rock sensations Bloodywood: ‘What's more metal than standing up for people you love?'
'We're serving a really nice dish called metal tikka masala,' jokes Bloodywood guitarist Jayant Bhadula. 'It's metal but with so many spices that it'll overwhelm your senses. You will headbang and you will end up dancing with us.' This is the tongue-in-cheek mission statement of one of metal's most original bands. Formed in 2016, Bloodywood flavour the conventions of nu-metal with traditional Indian instruments, meaning their songs are as likely to feature crunching riffs as they are the flute or the dhol. The trio – bulked out to a six-piece on stage – became viral sensations covering pop songs and alternative hits on YouTube before writing original material. From there, their fortunes soared. Their first ever gig was at German metal festival Wacken Open Air in 2019. Four years later they drew a massive crowd to the UK's Download festival, despite the tricky task of opening the main stage early on a Sunday. More recently, their song Dana-Dan was used in a pivotal action sequence in Dev Patel's action thriller Monkey Man. But there's a political element to even their most playful material. Karan Katiyar – co-vocalist alongside Raoul Kerr, absent from our call due to a struggling internet connection – says that on social media, and more than ever in the last couple of years, he sees 'a lot of bullying, a lot of hate, and I see a lot of it unchecked. I also see a lot of it aimed at ethnicity, which is why it became more important for us to tell our story.' Bhadula discovered heavy metal through his older cousin, who showed him the music of Viking metallers Amon Amarth and then burned him a CD full of modern classics from Slipknot to System of a Down (influence from both bleeds into Bloodywood's music). Katiyar stumbled across it while attending a battle of the bands competition: 'Someone threw me into a mosh pit and I had the best time of my life.' Bhadula says musical education in their native Delhi tends to be good – 'there are a lot of places with guitar and drum classes' – and awareness of metal is widespread. 'In school, when there were people playing music, it was always the people performing metal that would blow everyone's mind,' says Katiyar. Yet this hasn't translated into a broader Indian metal scene. 'It's strange to get our heads around the fact that there isn't a bigger audience because we're a very big country.' For metal, says Bhadula, 'the infrastructure isn't just lacking in terms of shows, but also in terms of how the music is promoted. In India, working in music is basically working in Bollywood, and metal isn't paying the bills.' As such, Bloodywood are waving the Indian flag almost single-handedly in the world of metal. 'We love representing our country and our culture in our music,' Katiyar says. 'It's no pressure at all, but one thing that does nag us sometimes is that we can't represent our whole country. There are so many cultures and so many languages; I can't even count the number of instruments we have. We want to try to represent everyone as much as humanly possible.' While the band are playful with their culture, naming their 2019 documentary Raj Against the Machine and selling naan-coloured vinyl, their popular single Gaddaar punches back against politicians using hateful rhetoric to divide, and they've often used music to stand up against rape culture (a show of solidarity unlike almost anything shown from men in metal). 'It's a global issue and something we feel very strongly about,' says Katiyar. 'It's kind of strange that not as many [men] are speaking about it; I don't think there's many things that are more metal than standing up for the people you love.' Their new album Nu Delhi is conspicuously less political than their 2022 debut Rakshak. Katiyar points out that Rakshak was released the same week Russia invaded Ukraine and, since then, the world has spiralled into constant, poisonous animosity. 'People are very keen on choosing a side and fighting the other side,' Katiyar says, 'and I think people need to talk to each other in a more civilised manner.' So the band have chosen to counter the toxicity, stereotyping and bullying by celebrating stories of their homeland and history. 'We're trying to make the world an easier place to live in through music,' says Katiyar. 'We want to bring the positive side of music to as many people as we can.' Nu Delhi is released on 21 March via Fearless Records
