r/Metallica Puppet of Masters 4d ago

Ride the Lightning Flemming Rasmussen. The Tone God behind Metallicas RTL, MOP and AJFA.

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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.

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u/Masterofknees 4d ago

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.

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u/CodeNamesBryan 4d ago

I always thought it was the venue that made S&M2 so great, but now that you mention there was more to it.

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u/smithy- 4d ago

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.