Having always done thing their own way with little regard for outside opinion, the only 10/10 albums within the genre, it always appears as though everybody loves the first four Metallica albums. The Black Album may have ensured that the band could live in houses made of solid gold for the rest of their lives, but a lot of people out there have beef with its hard rock direction. But everyone loves the first four.
In one of the more surprising stories to emerge from Metallica's camp in recent years, Lars Ulrich's least favorite Metallica song comes from one of their most popular albums. Ignoring St Anger or nonsense side-project with Lou Reed, Lars believes the band's worst song comes from their hottest period, and it's not the much-maligned "Escape" from Ride The Lightning. You may disagree with his assessment, but here's what the Danish maverick has to say when discussing the worst song Metallica ever wrote.
Metallica Haven't Played "Eye Of The Beholder" Since 1989
The ...And Justice For All Classic Remains On The Shelf
There shouldn't be an argument, given the quality of the songs on the album, but ...And Justice For All receives the most varied responses of all Metallica's albums. Some bemoan the lack of bass guitar, long run times, and "hope you like the drums" approach to production, others consider it the pinnacle of Metallica's thrash output. Metallica's setlist choices speak loudly about their internal feelings on an album, and plenty of ...Justice tracks have been live staples for decades. "One," "Blackened," and "Harvester Of Sorrow" are all regularly given outings.
While this isn't the case for all of their recorded output, Metallica have played every song on the ...And Justice For All album, with "To Live Is To Die" getting its first and only airing at the band's Bay Area anniversary show at The Fillmore in 2011. What's more surprising is that Metallica haven't played "Eye Of The Beholder" in full since the Damaged Justice tour in 1989, with the song being folded into an ...And Justice For All medley that is excellently captured on the band's Live Sh*t: Binge And Purge collection. The chances of it being played again are virtually nil, owing to one of the band's founding essentially despising its existence.
Why Lars Ulrich Dislikes "Eye Of The Beholder" So Much
The Danish Drummer Has His Reasons
In a particularly revealing interview to Vulture in 2020, Lars Ulrich's hate for "Eye Of The Beholder" is on record. "There’s a song called “Eye of the Beholder” on the Justice album," he explains. "Wherever I hear that song, it sounds kind of like — I guess we don’t want to be super-disrespectful to it — but it sounds really forced. It sounds like you put a square peg in a round hole. It sounds like it’s got two different tempos."
"It sounds like you put a square peg in a round hole. It sounds like it’s got two different tempos."
Lars explained the idea of two tempos further by saying "There’s kind of a 4/4 feel in the intro and on the verses, and then I think the choruses are more like in a waltz tempo. It literally sounds like two different worlds rubbing up against each other. It sounds very awkward to me," he summarizes. "I’m not a huge fan of that song".
It's perhaps a look at the inner-workings of one of the masterminds behind one of music's all-time greatest runs, but Lars is kind to his younger self when going deeper on the song. "I guess the asterisk is that, to me, we did the best we could each moment," reflects Ulrich. "So of course, sometimes you sit down and go “Huh?” or “That could have been better” or “That was a little awkward” or “That feels a little silly or easy” or “That feels over-thought-out” or whatever". Ulrich continued:
It goes back to that whole thing about the past is the past, and I don’t spend a long time back there. I don’t listen to a lot of Metallica music. It’s basically almost impossible for me to listen to a Metallica song without going, “Okay, how are the sonics, how’s the mix, how does the guitar sound? The vocals are too loud, the bass is too boomy.” It becomes this exercise in analytics. If I listened to Rage Against the Machine or something, I just let myself go. But when Metallica comes on it’s like, “Huh?”
Metallica actually dropped "Eye Of The Beholder" from the Damaged Justice tour throughout, playing it just 124 times on the 219 gig tour. It was played for the last time as the fifth song on the Middletown New York gig, but a day later, in New Hampshire, the song was replaced by "The Four Horsemen" for the last time.
They also swapped "Damage, Inc" for "Whiplash" that day, but that came back in subsequent tours. Changing songs on the tour wasn't unprecedented by any means, but most of the time the rotation came back round. But for "Eye Of The Beholder", you can literally see the point where they just lost interest in playing it live.
So, in short, no matter how much of a fan of "Eye of the Beholder" you might be, one of its creators disagrees to such an extent that it's essentially implausible that you'd ever get to see it live at a Metallica gig. Unless something dramatic changes. Like Lars' taste in music.