LAMB OF GOD/MEGADETH Drummer CHRIS ADLER Says METALLICA's 'Justice' Album Was 'A Game Changer'

LAMB OF GOD and MEGADETH drummer Chris Adler has praised METALLICA's "...And Justice For All" for revolutionizing metal drumming and singled out MEGADETH's "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" as his "Bible of all heavy metal."

Chris told U.K.'s Rhythm magazine: "['Justice'] changed a lot of things for a lot of people. The drum production was unlike anything that had been heard up until that point and the clarity was unrivaled. There were people certainly playing faster and more intricately, but most of the time, you couldn't actually hear what the heck they were doing. This was the first time where everything was crystal clear. In fact, I don't think there has really been that much of a revolutionary change in drum sounds since '...And Justice for All'."

He continued: "I don't think musically it was on par with what MEGADETH was doing at the same time with 'Rust In Peace', but production-wise and drum-wise it was a game changer for everybody in the whole metal scene.

"I know after touring with Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] for years, he was very hands-on [during the making of 'Justice'], he had a lot to do with that process. Hopefully maybe someday I'll look back and see one of my albums as a game changer as well but I loved his playing on that record. I wanted to mimic that, I would tune my drum heads down as low as they would go, I started taping quarters and fifty cent coins onto bass drums and using plastic beaters to try to get that sound. His playing on that album was fantastic. I still listen to it to this day, impressed."

Speaking about "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?", Adler said: "MEGADETH has always been about the guitars and that's why I love the band but Gar [Samuelson] did have that jazzy feel, especially on the first record, 'Killing Is My Business', where everything felt like it was just a hair away from running off the tracks. It was just chaos and he had that jazzy style and sped those things way, way up."

He continued: "'Peace Sells' changed the whole game as far as hard rock and metal music goes. To this day, I would still consider it to be Bible of all heavy metal. Gar was the guy that really made me think a little bit outside of the box because he was not a typical metal player at the time.

"There was obviously Lars and Louie [Clemente] from TESTAMENT, great double bass chops, Dave Lombardo, really fast double-bass stuff, but Gar was the guy shifting it up a little bit.

"I just really liked the idea that even though he was taking a backseat to the guitar players, you couldn't replace him. He had a very unique sound within the band and so that's what I've always tried to go for myself."