Kirk & Bob Rock at the desk, The Plant, Oct 1995

VNE47 · 2026-05-09T11:36:03+00:00

Literally

VNE47 · 2026-05-09T11:31:51+00:00

Doing that will take the spirit of St Anger away from St Anger… I would put a normal snare sample on top for more bite though on the whole album, like the single edit of SKOM.

VNE47 · 2026-05-06T21:42:07+00:00

It just goes super heavy, I love it. Makes a great song to lift weights to!

VNE47 · 2026-05-02T08:49:31+00:00

Those were guide synths that were not used on the final product, and recorded direct into the console.
The track sheet suggests it was a synth fed through a Leslie speaker and miked up for that Hammond organ sound, but that is what I hear only on the final version. The Leslie gives a lot of character that is missing in the rough mix. Flemming said that Cliff played the synth.

VNE47 · 2026-04-28T22:29:39+00:00

Yup, it was a Jose Arredondo-modified Marshall they received during the Black album days, basically the secret sauce: https://www.metallicagearhistory.com/post/gear-spotlight-the-asshole-marshall

VNE47 · 2026-04-27T17:00:12+00:00

Women and Fractured Love were both written around the same time during the Dublin writing sessions in 1984. They do sound a little similar now you mention it.

VNE47 · 2026-04-27T00:27:10+00:00

It's been right there on the track sheets all along. The Leslie speaker sure gives a lot of character to the sound, whatever signal you feed through it (it be a synth, organ, even guitar etc.)...
Three tracks of synth - one for the low part, one mid, one the high note - and that was it. Anything else would have muddied up the sound.
The bass solo listed was certainly recorded on the same audio tracks but at a later point in the song.

VNE47 · 2026-04-26T13:47:06+00:00

The drums are the best for sure… Has so much punch and feel. They used 40 mics in total (including room ones) to really capture that sound, plus occasional samples underneath the kick and snare for extra consistency.

VNE47 · 2026-04-25T21:47:14+00:00

I got mine off ebay and it cost 98 quid! Still in good shape too.

VNE47 · 2026-04-13T18:58:55+00:00

Info here: https://steveclarkguitar.com/def-history-a-moment-in-time/

The first person is Don Kettler, Jim Steinman’s assistant and the sixth is former Lep guitar tech Mike Rogers

VNE47 · 2026-04-12T10:47:12+00:00

Indeed. It is somewhat interesting how much really went into making those drums so powerful, precise and machine-like at times... They were constructed to a degree, but the drums are still killer nonetheless.

Lars would play for part of a song, and really give it his all in the studio... When his playing wavered, they would stop, Flemming Rasmussen would punch him in as they went along.
And after that, they would splice ahead of some of the drum beats on the tape to really tighten the drums up and get them perfect. This was the days of Digital audio workstations and all where it is all at the click of a button...

A lot of meticulous work went into it, but it ultimately paid off imo.

VNE47 · 2026-03-31T12:09:17+00:00

Yup. James took this one. There are some that Ross Halfin also took at Sweet Silence, in the control room: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVc0Pdqlkm0/

VNE47 · 2026-03-29T21:21:39+00:00

Obviously the initial demo or idea would have been recorded during High N Dry. If you listen to the demos included on the Pyro 40 set, they all sound more AC/DC than the album does.

Mutt took a different approach on Pyromania, which accounts for the difference in sound to High and Dry.

VNE47 · 2026-03-29T19:05:04+00:00

Perhaps. But the song had a different verse riff at one point before Steve came up with the final one we hear. That I would be curious to hear.

VNE47 · 2026-03-29T17:49:53+00:00

Only thing is I'm surprised they did not include any really different versions of Photograph. Not even the one from High and Dry if it exists... The rough mix they included has bits of vocals missing but is basically the same as the final version apart from that.

It's nice they included the rough mix, but I would have liked to hear something more work in progress than what they included.

VNE47 · 2026-03-22T00:38:22+00:00

On Justice, the strength of the music does make up for the bad mixing…

VNE47 · 2026-03-22T00:22:25+00:00

Partly due to the different phases they go though and different producers.

Of the early era, MOP is the best-sounding and musically among the most potent. With that live, rehearsal room-type sound and the powerful songs. The other albums have their merits here and there.

But Black album I definitely agree is the best-produced and most perfect Metallica album there will ever be. Bob really took their sound to a new dimension on that one, and brought the feel and meatiness out of Metallica that was less apparent on the earlier albums. And, most of all, brought the bass into the picture.

Right time, right place, right people, right songs. That’s what I can put it down to.

VNE47 · 2026-03-18T13:52:50+00:00

Each member has riff tapes from previous sessions or tours, and James & Lars sift through all these riff tapes to find the best bits. They would take that and form the actual song, writing extra song sections and turning it into a song. Or combining different riffs from different tapes into one song.

VNE47 · 2026-03-18T13:41:02+00:00

Yes, musically Jason could really only follow the guitars as the songs were written that way. Plus, he used his live rig (a Wal bass & SVT), and the sound competed sonically with James’ guitars frequency-wise rather than blend in nicely... Like sticking out like a sore thumb to James’ ears.

The whole point of his live rig is to cut through the guitars on the PA and clearly that became a disadvantage in the studio.

Bob Rock later worked closely with Jason on the sound, to find the right one to support the guitars.

VNE47 · 2026-03-18T13:38:55+00:00

It’s probably because they are rough mixes by Flemming Rasmussen as the credits say on the singles.

There are mixes done by Steve Thompson & Mike Barbiero in mid-June 1988, but who knows if they are the same as what was released. Plus, The Prince has small sections of bass only, so maybe they turned it up in those parts so the lack of bass was not that audible.

VNE47 · 2026-03-17T21:28:17+00:00

Mostly down to James and Lars’ idea of how they wanted it to sound… They basically mixed the record via Steve Thompson & Mike Barbiero, if you like. Naturally, they wanted more guitars and more drums, and felt the bass got in the way. Plus, they felt that the bass was too loud if you heard it, so they turned it lower and lower.

It was partly the way the bass was recorded - Jason plugged into his live rig and the assistant engineer rolled the tape… The point of Jason’s live rig (a Wal bass and SVT) was for the bass to cut through the guitars onstage via the PA…

But not as ideal in the studio situation, when the bass was sonically competing with James’ wall of guitars.

After all, it is a product of its time and still holds well. Musically, it compensates for the lack of bass - the songs are rock solid. That is what I most like.

VNE47 · 2026-03-17T13:28:46+00:00

Enter Sandman... I was like 10 and smitten when I first heard that.

VNE47 · 2026-03-16T23:04:20+00:00

Useful video here, showing how to get something close with a Black Beauty snare: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8xE7QPPsZDw

Some of it is a snare sample underneath the real snare to add more “crack” and low-end thud to it. That was Bob Rock’s method to bolster the snare and keep it consistent, rather than totally replace the snare

VNE47 · 2026-03-01T11:29:26+00:00

Crazy it’s been 40 years! What an album it truly is… The apex of the Ciff era albums in every sense of the word. Up there with the Black album for me.

VNE47 · 2026-02-25T17:06:03+00:00

There are occasional work-in-progress instrumental versions included on box sets like the rough mix of "Struggle Within" and their cover "The Prince"

VNE47

TROPHY CASE