During a conversation with Metal Hammer, classic Metallica producer Flemming Rasmussen looked back on the “Lightning” sessions and drummer Lars Ulrich’s performance.

He said:

“I thought he was absolutely useless. The very first thing I asked when he started playing was, ‘Does everything start on an upbeat?’ And he went, ‘What’s an upbeat?’

“We started telling him about beats. That they have to be an equal length of time between that hit, that hit, and that hit, and you have to be able to count to four before you come in again.

“Then he could play a really good fill that nobody else had thought of doing at that time.”

Flemming also remembered how the band used an actual anvil on “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” saying:

“We put it on a backstairs when we recorded it. That was ridiculous – it weighed a ton. But Lars hit it and it sounded really good. That was before samplers, so we had to make our own sounds.”