Home Featured GOJIRA’s MARIO DUPLANTIER On LARS ULRICH: “I Think He’s The Best Showman Drummer In The World”

GOJIRA’s MARIO DUPLANTIER On LARS ULRICH: “I Think He’s The Best Showman Drummer In The World”

is lars ulrich a good drummer, GOJIRA’s MARIO DUPLANTIER On LARS ULRICH: “I Think He’s The Best Showman Drummer In The World”

GOJIRA drummer Mario Duplantier recently spoke with Metal Hammer magazine about the 10 drummers that changed his life. Included in Mario’s list was METALLICA’s Lars Ulrich, who Duplantier says was “probably the first drummer that really made me pay attention.”

“I was maybe ten or eleven years old and my brother [GOJIRA frontman Joseph Duplantier] had received the METALLICA ‘Live Shit: Binge & Purge’ video boxset for Christmas” Mario said. “We were sat watching it and I couldn’t take my eyes off of Lars; the way he was playing, the color of the drumheads, the movement… it was all so badass. Right away I was telling my brother, ‘That drummer is the best in the world!’ That was when I decided I wanted to play drums.

“Lars is a genius,” he continued. “If you listen to the first five METALLICA albums, the drumming is so special, particularly the way he writes those patterns. Even now I think he’s the best showman drummer in the world. It’s not about the tempo or technicality — it’s something else. Nobody could imagine METALLICA with another drummer.”

Mario also named off Vinnie Paul Abbott (PANTERA), Igor Cavalera (SEPULTURA), Sean Reinert (DEATH), Gene Hoglan (TESTAMENT, DEATH), David Silveria (KORN) and Pete Sandoval (MORBID ANGEL) as drumming influences.

GOJIRA’s new album, “Fortitude”, came out on April 30 via Roadrunner Records.