What Famous Metallica Songs Would Sound Like With St. Anger Drums

A drummer on YouTube has made a video playing classic Metallica songs, but with the drum sounds of St. Anger. Indeed, they replaced all the drums on the tracks with the ringing, open-snare drum tone of the metal legends’ polarizing 2003 album.

Think you can handle it? In the clip, creator PolarWhale tunes their snare and tom drums to a St. Anger-like timbre, then proceeds to play through “Master of Puppets,” “Creeping Death,” “One” and “Enter Sandman” with those tones. All four songs come from Metallica albums released before St. Anger.

Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.

Us metal fans know the St. Anger snare well, whether we like or not. When making the Bob Rock-helmed St. Anger in 2002 and 2003, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich experimented with turning the snares off on his snare drum. By removing the wires from the bottom head of the instrument, the resulting tone was more booming — more like a tom than a regular snare.

Two years ago, Ulrich said he still stood by the decision. “I’m always just looking ahead, always thinking about the next thing,” the drummer explained in 2020. “Whether it’s Metallica always thinking ahead or in my personal life or in relationships, whatever I’m doing.”

Earlier this year, a Metallica song included in Netflix’s Stranger Things 4 gave the band a popularity boost when the character Eddie Munson plays “Master of Puppets” on guitar in a pivotal scene. Metallica subsequently welcomed their new fans before some seemingly attempted to “cancel” the group.

Metallica recently wrapped the majority of their 2022 tour dates. They’ll play Global Citizen Fest and the Helping Hands Concert to end the year. Get Metallica tickets here.

Follow PolarWhale on YouTube and Patreon.

Legendary Metallica Songs but All Drums Are St. Anger Snares