In other news, my drum tablature book for Metallica’s Black Album arrived today. Even though, for me, The Black Album marks the beginning of Metallica’s descent into being a group of lame, short haired family men who can’t write half as well as they used to, it seems to be generally accepted as the easiest Metallica album to play. Since I read an interview with Lars Ulrich previous to the album being released where he complimented AC/DC’s Phill Rudd on his genius, I guess this makes sense. Of course, at the time, after his awesome performance on …And Justice For All, my reaction was a big “wtf?” Anyway, the upside is that I might be able to play some stuff from a metal band I dig even though I’m a total beginner. Looking at the tab it seems to be beyond me but I started puzzling out the opening tom parts of Enter Sandman and actually got a reasonable facsimile of it going. At least I memorized it so I’m no longer squinting down at the open book on the ground (yeah, I really need to get a music stand down in the basement).