CS Video: Lars Ulrich on Metallica Through the Never

Ever since the release of their debut album, the cheerily-titled “Kill Them All,” thirty years ago, preeminent rockers Metallica have found a way to grow a diehard fanbase while keeping them all on board for the past three decades, an achievement few other bands can claim.

Ten years ago, the band’s internal turmoils while recording “St. Anger” and trying to find a new bass player were documented in Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. That album’s subsequent poor reception would make one think Metallica may have reached the plateau of their success. Not so. Ten years later, Metallica is still going strong with new bass player Robert Trujillo settling in as the band’s popular fourth member and since that doc, they’ve released and toured with another acclaimed studio album, produced by Rick Rubin, made another full album with Lou Reed, been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and began their own Orion music festival (which they headlined the first year and played under a pseudonym this year).

This tight and tougher 2013 incarnation of Metallica is on full display in Metallica Through the Never, a feature length IMAX 3D film produced and written by the band under their Blackened imprint. Directed by Nimrod Antal (Vacancy, Predators), it’s more than just a concert film as it combines footage of the band playing some of their most popular tunes in a full concert staged exclusively for the movie with a concurrent storyline involving a roadie, played by Dane DeHaan (The Place Beyond the Pines), traveling through an abandoned city that has been struck by some sort of Apocalyptic event.

ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with the band’s drummer and co-founder Lars Ulrich, who has long been the band’s prominent mouthpiece, before the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere to talk about Metallica’s first foray into filmmaking. In the video interview below, we spoke with Ulrich about:

* How Metallica decided to get into the movie business and how “Through the Never” evolved from their experiences with “Some Kind of Monster”
* Whether they had some ideas of what they wanted the narrative aspect of the film to be before meeting with director Nimrod Antal
* How they chose the setlist for the movie’s exclusive concert, but how the first step for the movie was creating the stage for the show
* How important it was to create everything just for the film rather than shooting at the end of an existing tour
* Whether they played through the entire set for the audience of extras
* How they wanted to create a different experience with the movie
* What’s next for Metallica? (after promoting the movie, that is)
* He tells us that doing another record–their first in five years–is definitely at the forefront of their plans even though they haven’t been sitting still since “Death Magnetic”
* Whether Metallica might consider bringing the movie’s amazing stage on the road for a select number of show

Metallica Through the Never opens exclusively in IMAX 3D theaters on Friday, September 27 and in regular 3D on October 4.