Is it weird that I don't think the albums he produced sound anywhere near as good as Bob Rock's? The songs are better, but that's also the band at the time.
Bob's stuff brought the bass front and center and gave all the instruments space to breathe and be huge.
The bass is buried in the mix, and even Call of Ktulu's bass solo is lost. Master of Puppets barely features any truly audible bass other than during Orion, leper Messiah and damage inc, and that's only because the bass being front and centre is part of the riff.
Flemming's albums all have their own distinct personality, which is cool, and that's why it's also fun to try and recreate the sound. But that aside, yes, they're not particularly impressive albums when it comes to the production, not even for their time.
Bob's albums sound a lot better, and finally captured the power the band had live. TBA in particular is one of the best mixed rock/metal albums ever, you can hear how they've slaved over every little detail. He also did a phenomenal job with S&M, it's really not easy to find the balance he did between the symphony and the band, as evidenced by S&M2.
Bob Rock said it took a very long time to record just a single song. "Enter Sandman" may have taken the longest out of all of the songs on The Black Album.
I agree, but the guitars sound better to me on the first 4 albums, especially Puppets. I would be interested in solely how he gets the guitar tone, but besides that I would never mix the way he does.
Master of Puppets bass is clearly audible to me on every song. Are you listening to an original master, or one of the countless remasters over the years that have compressed the sound to shit?
Vinyl is notorious for cutting out the low end. The CD is superior, I just listened to it again and could hear the bass on every song. I agree with you on RTL and AJFA though.
Lol. Mate.. the cd is superior after a remaster sure, it never came out in CD originally! don't give yourself Stockholm syndrome and pretend it's crystal clear. It's not. It's buried behind the kick drum and low end of the mid range. If I have to get out the spectrometer I will.
All I can say is it's an acquired taste.
Yes, their Load, Reload, and the newly recorded disk of Garage Inc. has way more range, more bass, etc. But the way Metallica and studios recorded music has a very different character (80s vs 90s). Not just the riffs or lyrics.
What I'm talking about is the process of recording, sampling, etc. Theoretically, you could re-record Load's riffs, basslines (and so on) and put it through the recording/mastering process of the 80s. What you'd end up with doesn't have the breathing space of the original Load but the character of the 80s.
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u/Seiryth 4d ago
Is it weird that I don't think the albums he produced sound anywhere near as good as Bob Rock's? The songs are better, but that's also the band at the time.
Bob's stuff brought the bass front and center and gave all the instruments space to breathe and be huge.
The bass is buried in the mix, and even Call of Ktulu's bass solo is lost. Master of Puppets barely features any truly audible bass other than during Orion, leper Messiah and damage inc, and that's only because the bass being front and centre is part of the riff.