Re Lars as a drummer, my first encounter with the band was both late and epic. It was via a double disc dvd set of their live symphony and Metallica performance. Watching Lars drum himself to exhaustion was goosebump inducing. 10/10 would love him again for his performances.

That said, I’ve watched some comparison videos of his drumming vs more expressive and I can understand where people are coming from :,)

Lars is definitely a good drummer. He's not technical but he's good and I think there's a perfect balance in that he lets the guitars shine. It's very much a guitar-driven band and he helps make it happen. If Gene Hoglan was their drummer it would be a very different band.

Lars is technical, he's just not proficient in a traditional way. He's incredibly creative and plays things oddly (compared to his contemporaries), which a lot of traditional drummers call "wrong". Never made sense to me why Jimi Hendrix was a genius but Lars gets ridiculed, they're very similar in that way. He didn't keep up his chops as he aged and now has trouble playing a lot of the things he wrote when he was younger. But his contributions to the songwriting and very unique style influenced a generation.

All that being said, I think this timing strangeness could absolutely have started because that's how Lars played it (intentional or not), and everyone adapted to him because it's cool.

Comparing Lars to Jimi Hendrix isn't just a stretch, they're lightyears away from each other in skill and in my opinion, musical impact. To be clear I'm a huge fan both Metallica and Jimi. I played drums for about 15 years and I'd call most of Lars drumming proficient and consistent in style, if not a little boring.

I'm a huge fan of Metallica as well, and I think both they and most fans would say that individually, anyone of them isn't the best, but Metallica is really a case of the sum being greater than the parts.

TBF, they are all talented, but they are really something else entirely as a band.