On Monday 29 September 2008, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > Sirtaj Singh Kang wrote, [on 9/29/2008 5:58 PM]: > >> _And Justice For All_ sounds quite nice, I thought. > > > > But note how it also has almost no bass guitar. It was the first > > Metallica album after Cliff Burton was replaced by Jason Newsted, and > > Newsted contended that they mixed out his bass parts as some sort of > > bizarre hazing ritual. Newsted is of course long gone from the band, > > but I guess they really liked that aesthetic and stuck to it. > > It may not be an accident that Lars Ulrich started getting this thick, > fat drum tone (i.e, bass becomes almost irrelevant)
Udhay! I can't believe I'm reading that coming from you! Maybe in Metallica's bass-follows-drum style of bass line it might be true, but surely you've heard what a decent, imaginative bass line can do to a metal song. Tool have built their entire nerd-prog-metal career on the play between the drummer and bass player. > round about the _And > Justice For All_ days. The Black album has truly awesome drum tone. Agreed. Shame about entirely everything else about the album. ... I was introduced to Metallica with the Black album. It put me off them entirely until many, many years later, until I was bludgeoned repeatedly over the head with Master of Puppets by a friend. The scars still remain however, and the rest of the garbage they put out since then didn't helped much. I haven't heard the new album but I gather its a bit of a return to form. -Taj.
