NEWS FLASH: Lars Ulrich Illegally Downloaded His Own Album.

Now I’ve heard everything. That article also has a clip recorded when their documentary, Some Kind of Monster, came out. I saw that movie primarily to confirm my suspicions that the worst decision Metallica ever made was to let Lars Ulrich be their drummer. I was right.

In the youtube video, Lars admits he’s a control freak, and it comes as no surprise. He has been the posterboy for the industry’s witch-hunt on filesharing. His argument was that filesharing is tantamount to stealing, yet somehow he has the “right to download Death Magnetic for free.” Lars can’t have his cake and eat it too. He wants to infinite control of Metallica even if that means angering the very people who put money in Metallica’s bank account.

A couple years ago, the movie industry, following a similar path, tried to start an anti-piracy campaign with the thesis being that stealing a movie doesn’t hurt the stars, it hurts the people who work behind to scenes. Is Lars that much of an ass to admit he’s stealing directly from the people who personally helped him make that record? Never mind that those people helped make an album that is pretty painful to listen to, Death Magnetic is designed to control the way you listen to the album. Who owns the volume knob on your stereo: you or Lars Ulrich?

This whole thing is just fascinating. The worst part of it is that I feel like the rest of Metallica gets infected with his insanity. They should just stop listening to Lars and kick him to the curb. Then they might start making albums worth listening to, legally or otherwise.