Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Names Best Hard Rock Live Album Ever

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich has proclaimed Deep Purple’s Made in Japan as the best hard rock live album ever in a new promotional video hyping the reissue of the classic 1972 performance.

Though Lars starts the video saying that he wanted to “take a brief second” to speak about the album, his passion and excitement over the record soon takes over and his inner fanboy comes out in the video exemplifying his very human admiration.

What Did Lars Ulrich Say About Deep Purple’s Made In Japan Album?

The nearly three-minute clip for Deep Purple’s Official YouTube site finds the Metallica drummer offering a mix of praise for the Made in Japan album while also setting up what fans will get on the newly reissued collection.

As for the moments of praise, Lars makes his feelings passionately felt. “In my humble opinion, [it’s] hands down the best hard rock live album ever,” says Ulrich. “I have heard it just about 18,000 times and every time I hear it, it just gets better and better and better. It’s so crazy cool. It’s so lively, it’s so energetic and just argggh. You know what I mean.”

Late in the testimonial, he concluded, “Maybe you’ve already heard it 9,000 times. Maybe you’ve never heard it. Wherever you fall, just check it the fuck out, ’cause in terms of live hard rock and roll, this is as good as it gets.”

As for the set up of what fans are getting on the record, the key point that Ulrich wanted to get across was that all three nights of their concerts in Japan will now be available. Whereas the initial recording cherry-picked the best of all three shows to put together for the album, you now get to hear all three concerts.

“When you hear the three nights of the three different concerts [and] the versions of the songs, they’re all fucking so crazy cool. But they’re different from each other,” remarked Ulrich, at one point bouncing up and down with excitement over the collective package. “So one night ‘Child in Time’ is this long, and the other night ‘Child in Time’ is that long and the third night ‘Child in Time’ is that long, because the solo is a different length. {Ritchie] Blackmore is in a different mood. Ian Paice is playing against him in this kind of way and it sets up these vibes. And then Ian Gillan goes over here and then Roger Glover’s holding this down. And Jon Lord goes here on the keyboards and over there and it’s also crazy fucking cool.”

Check out Lars’ full testimonial for Deep Purple’s Made in Japan below.

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich Praises Deep Purple’s Made in Japan Album

What Else Has Lars Ulrich Said About Deep Purple’s Made in Japan?

Deep Purple had an immense impact upon Lars Ulrich at a young age and he’s been vocal about his love for the band over the years. In a 2017 feature for Rolling Stone, Lars picked the Made in Japan album as one of his 15 favorite rock and metal albums ever.

“There’s probably no other band in rock where the difference between the album versions and the live versions are more radical,” noted Ulrich of the run times between the live and studio albums.

“Everything’s completely free-from, but it’s not hippie-trippy, space-age ‘Let’s take mushrooms for four hours’ or whatever. There’s a cohesiveness to it and it still connects, but every live version’s different. Every concert was different. You never knew how many bars the soloists were gonna take and run with and all that stuff,” marveled Ulrich.

He continued, “This is a band that had a lot of internal friction. So when it came together onstage and there was this push and pull where they’re almost all trying to upstage each other and they’re pushing each other, prodding each other and trying to out-do each other, it just makes for an incredible, ferocious listening pleasure.”

In 2016, Ulrich had the honor of inducting Deep Purple into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Recalling how his father had taken him as a child to see Deep Purple in concert in 1973, Lars recalled, “”Everything was larger than life, the sound the spectacle, the songs, the musicians all doing things with their instruments that I had never seen before — and didn’t even know was possible. Deep Purple were a beautiful contradiction, like you just walked in on five musicians at the top of their game jamming one classic after another with raw intensity as if they were in a garage playing for no one but themselves.”

About Deep Purple’s Made In Japan

Deep Purple’s Made in Japan was initially recorded on Aug. 15-17, 1972 as a double live album. The album itself was issued in Japan and the U.K. in December 1972 and later in the U.S. in March 1973.

The shows recorded took place at the Festival Hall in Osaka and Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The band insisted on live production employing Martin Birch to oversee the recordings. The album became a smash success, bolstered by the release of “Smoke on the Water.”

READ MORE: The Top 25 Hard Rock + Metal Live Albums

To coincide with the Aug. 15 recording of the first show, Deep Purple recently reissued the Made In Japan collection as a 5CD and Blu-Ry and 10LP box set that included newly remixed versions of all three concerts. In addition, there are both stereo and Atmos mixes of the record by Steven Wilson. You can visit the band’s website to pick up the album and learn about all the various package and merch offers.