I really don't think that Lars is a terrible drummer, you have to keep in mind that Metallica never heavily lay on the sound of the drums/drummer/drumming ability. Where Metallica excelled is in Kirk's excellent leads and Hetfield's absolutely flawless rhythms, and when Cliff was in the band, his finger-to-bass ridiculousness. When I think Metallica, I think awesome riffs, great solos, fantastic leads, not great drumming. Lars does a great job at being an average drummer. If fact if his drums were better, it might even take away from how good the guitar work is, and you can't honestly tell me that epics like Damage, Inc. and Dyer's Eve have shitty drum work. Having said that if he had died instead of Cliff, who knows? That was almost 22 years ago now, the amount of things that could happen to a band in that time is limitless. Metal now would be pretty different, as Metallica is responsible for A LOT more than just selling metal records, such as bringing it mainstream and really telling people with "Metallica" that metal had a voice and is now not nothing. I think if Lars died, Metallica would simply be in a state of "Oh shit what now." Lars is basically the leader of Metallica. He makes a lot of important decisions, writes a lot of the music and does a lot of Metallica's business nowadays. The band would be lost without him. He's a very important person to metal. All of Metallica is vital to metal, whether you like it or not. They are the biggest metal-metal band ever, 100 million records don't get sold for no reason. Metallica is what Metallica is, so I don't think we should worry about the what-ifs.

Lars isnt a terrible drummer. He is a competent, average drummer. And I think his style is good for Metallica. Some drummers can actually take away from the music by trying to show off, and seeing like "how many fills/rolls can I put in this song?". And that attitude can sometimes take away from the music, rather than adding to it. Its all very well being a technically gifted drummer, but knowing how to use those skills to enhance songs rather than take away from them, is actually a skill in itself. Dave Lombardo's drumming on South Of Heaven is the classic example of how to do it right.

And yes, you could hardly call the drumming on a song like "Dyer's Eve" rubbish. I mean, its not like I could just sit behind the kit and be able to play it! Paul Mazurkiewicz from Cannibal Corpse reminds me a lot of Lars actually. He's like the death metal Lars! lol Not technically great, but a good solid drummer, who never misses a beat, and is the anchor behind the music. Neither Paul or Lars are amazing drummers, but they are decent, and are vital to their respective band's sounds.

Once I went to the official Italian Metallica tribute band concert and the drummer played in different way and the songs turned out to be far more thrash metal and violent. The classic up tempo was preferred and this helped a lot because Lars can't do it.

Have you ever listened to any southern rock? Perhaps you heard a song called Sweet Home Alabama? Now, that's southern rock. If you honestly think that Black Album and Lynyrd Skynyrd have ANYTHING in common, you're just plain deaf. It's all right if you don't like it, but saying it's southern rock is just... wrong. Hell, not even Nothing Else Matters sounds like it, hard rock perhaps, but southern... no way. Black Album is simply metal. It's got thrash riffs, it's got heavy riffs, it's got groove riffs, it doesn't have A SINGLE hard rock riff.

Load and Reload, on the other hand, are rock, althought they sound a lot more like Down and similar southern metal bands, than hard rock. Ronnie is southern rock, but than Devil's Dance is groove metal. And then you have a Soundgarden rip-off (Until it Sleeps), one country tune (Mama Said), stoner rock (Bad Seed's main riff resembles Gypsy a lot)... there's even an obvious Judas Priest influence on Fuel (I can hear Screaming for Vengeance vibe going on).

Stop talking about Dyer's Eve having good drums, they're programmed on the record. And excellent leads? Ok that's subjective I'll concede.

Is there any actual proof of that, or is it just a rumour?

They aren't programmed, it's like a bunch of different takes copied and pasted because Lars can't hold the tempo very long. When they play it live, he doesn't play the double bass part.

Really? Again, is that a fact, or just a rumour? I have actually heard that myself, but not from any official source.

Maybe the problem is, he doesnt practice enough...because if thats the case, he obviously can play it, just not for a prolonged time. I know he doesnt do the double bass part now when they play it, and he sometimes mucks up the double bass part in "One". I think Lars is a lazy drummer, rather than a poor drummer. I dont think he's as dedicated to his instrument as say, Dave Lombardo. Dave is a similar age to Lars, but he can still do the double bass parts live. He has said he uses a technique where he can do the double bass with minimal effort.

This isn't about whether Metallica existed or not in the first place but what if Lars had passed away in 1986. Thrash had already formed in '86, Post '86 Metallica had no influence on many of those genres as they were already formed, beginning to form etc. Groove Metal for example would have come about anyway even without the Black Album. Pantera's Cowboys From Hell and Exhorder's Slaughter in the Vatican are 2 examples of bands moving towards groove metal without being influenced by post 86 Metallica as both those albums were released in 1990.

Once I read that often Metallica tend to erase the tracks from ...And Justice from the live set because they sound too technical and boring but in my opinion the real problem is Lars for the things you guys said before and maybe they are true. I heard the part in which he mocks the double bass part in One. Terrible.

Newstead should have stayed in Flotsam & Jetsam where he belongs. Maybe James could have taken over all songwriting abilities and Metallica would have survived a little longer than it did.

Thats just my opinion because I fucking hate Lars.

Well the principle's the same, innit? And they say Dragonforce uses studio tricks lol.

Effectively event if Lars Ulric dies, Metallica will always stay a sucking band.

Off topic, I know, but why do people always say "Slaughter" is groove? It sounds like really aggressive thrash to me.

Because Slaughter in the Vatican has a few groovy moments, Kyle Thomas sounds a tiny bit like Phil Anselmo, and people are stupid.

To be honest, I'm not sure Metallica would have continued. Someone touched on it earlier, sorry I forget your name, but about him being the spokes person etc. He's also the driving force in Metallica, he is the visionary. True hes also the worst of the musicians, but hes the business brain behind Metallica. He's the one that makes all the decisions for the band, and he has the final say in anything the band does. This is also displayed in Some Kind of Monster.
Lars was the one that got them the initial record deals, he's the one that stripped down the riffs and made Metallica a more accessible, Hard Rock band.
No doubt the band remaining band members would have continued in music, but I'm not sure it would have been with Metallica. Perhaps they would have ended up something of an enigma, with a much more "respectable" legacy, similar to something like what Witchfinder General became after there break up.
I reckon the rest of the band would have probably made a few heavier albums, but never really becoming anything, atleast compared to what Metallica is now. Probably something equivalent to Exodus or Flotsam and Jetsam. Nothing against those bands, indeed they have some awesome stuff, but they are small fries compared to Metallica, I mean, according to SoundScan, everything bar Shania Twain is.
Thats what I think anyway.