Why beat a dead horse when you can beat a keg with a baseball bat while playing along to a handful of Metallica songs, pretending it's actually the snare drum sound from the band's infamous St. Anger album?
For 20 years, fans and critics have mocked Lars Ulrich's snare drum sound on their 2003 album, comparing it to a metal trash can lid, among other things. What can be said for certain is that there's a remarkable level of "ping" to the snare, a sound more commonly associated with extreme metal genres such as grindcore, goregrind and brutal death metal/slam.
And with a new Metallica album, 72 Seasons, gracing 2023 alongside the 20th anniversary of St. Anger coming in June, this ever-ridiculed drum sound has made for some popular fodder among the metal community's content creators.
One has to imagine that at least part of this decades-long fixation on this snare sound is due to Metallica's ever-growing fanbase as younger fans just begin to get into the band and dig through their history.
Translation: this topic is never going away.
In September of last year, one YouTuber played a handful of iconic Metallica songs with what sounds like that distinct snare drum and, earlier this year, one musician played the St. Anger title track using a baseball bat to strike a beer keg serving as the replacement for the snare.
Now that "St. Anger" keg-basher is back at it with a new video, playing "Enter Sandman," "Master of Puppets," "Nothing Else Matters," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "One," "Fuel," "Sad But True," "Lux Aeterna," "The Unforgiven" and "Seek and Destroy."
The funniest moments are definitely during the slower, more tender tracks where that rattling metal-on-metal pounding totally wrecks the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the onlooker behind the computer desk sipping (presumably) coffee looks slightly less than enthralled, probably having had to endure too many takes to complete this video.
Watch it all below!
Catch Metallica supporting their new album 72 Seasons live (sans beer keg) around the world this year and next at these tour dates and for tickets, head to this location
Other Metallica Songs With the St. Anger Snare Drum Sound
