To begin this journey down metal lane, I'll stop first at Metallica. For the longest time, one of Metallica's songs has amazed me, and made me laugh. The song is Blackened. As many people thought, and still do, Lars Ullrich could only hold a straight beat and occasionally play some double bass. Nay, on this track: Lars incredibly takes odd time to a cool new level.

The first part of the song that should be analyzed is the syncopated main guitar riff. The two-measure riff is in 7/4 time, and is syncopated until the last three beats of the second measure. For almost every time that the guitar plays that riff, Lars plays a double-time syncopated beat behind it. Knowing that, we can now explore the ways that Lars experiments in that time signature, and throws people off. The first time the riff is being played, in the beginning of the song, Lars plays solely on his snare drum and hi-hat syncopated. These two parts play together in a syncopated time, until in the last repeated measure, Lars adds an extra eight note leading into the quick interlude, which can cause listeners to believe that the snare drum and hi-hat were the down beats.

The other part of the song that Lars causes major frustration with is at (5:31) the heaviest part of the song. The syncopation is played with a full-time beat behind it. However, this is where it gets tricky. Many transcribers have gotten this part wrong. Before the heavy section, there is a two-measure build up of eighth notes. The second measure has an extra eight note on the drums, but not on the guitar. The guitar plays the correct syncopated riff, but the drums, having added an extra eighth note, being on the first upbeat of the riff, causes listeners problems as the syncopated notes of the riff sound like the downbeats. The beat stays steady for two measures, when Lars plays a fill on the last three beats, but cuts off the last eight note, and returns to the correct sounding syncopated riff. This part of the song is played in concert that way also.

The next section of Blackened that makes it stand out from other songs is the harmonized guitar section (4:05). Coming upon a part like this is very rare. Not only is the harmony perfectly fit to the song, but the time does not stay constant. The time signature changes from 4/4 to 2/4 to 4/4 to 3/4. The guitars continually raise in pitch, but stay in harmony. The section is backed by a rhythm guitar part, which stays in time, and also gives the song a special sound. Also, the harmony part is lead into by an ultra-cool drum fill. Lars takes two groups of fast "and-trip-let-downbeat's", and on the final two beats plays a crazy bass drum floor tom roll. Lars proved to me at least, that he's more than just a beat holder, and maybe his style of metal can move you as well.