Mere bas tak!

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I dag er det 30 år siden Metallicas album “…and justice for all” blev udgivet. Jeg kan huske, at jeg dengang opfattede albummet som et thrash-mesterværk. Helt vildt tight og fuldendt i form. Men der manglede noget: bassen.

Den manglende bas i lydbilledet, var jeg nok ikke så bevidst om dengang. Men af alle Metallicas album er det den, hvor det giver mening at lave en relanceret og reproduceret udgave med ét grundlæggende tema: Mere bas!

Bassist Jason Newsted var kommet med i Metallic efter Cliff Burtons død på Master of Puppets-touren.
Inden “…and justice for all” havde bandet indspillet ep’en “Garage Inc.”, men dette var den første fuldlængde udgivelse med Jason Newsted.

Som ny i bandet havde Jason Newsted det ikke let i Metallica. James Hetfield og Lars Ulrich trumfede deres holdning igennem, med det resultat at guitar og trommer kom alt for meget i front i lydmixningen.

I et af Alphabetallicas podcast siger producer Flemmeing Rasmussen:

“And the bass – let me just point out – the bass tracks on “…And Justice for All” are actually fantastic. Jason plays really well. He probably tried to prove that he was worth, that he was up there with Cliff, which in my opinion he is.

“It’s a different style, but he is as good of bass player as Cliff, just in a different way. And I’ve heard the bass tracks and they were actually amazing. They sound good, he plays well. But, they heard the mix and they went, “Alright, take the bass down, change this this this and this, and then take the bass down.” So you can barely hear it. And then once they’ve done that they said, “Take it another 3dB down.”

“Why they did that – I have no idea! It could be that they were still grieving about Cliff. I have no idea. But imagine my surprise when I heard the album. I was like, “What the… What?!” It got really criticized when it came out, and people got more or less blown away because of the dryness of the sound. It just goes BANG, right in your face.”
(citat: Flemming Rasmussen i Alphabetallica. 27. juli 2017)

På Metallicas 3. album “Master of Puppets”, som var det sidste album med Cliff Burton og den seneste fuldlængde studiealbum inden “…and justice for all”, er bassen fint med i lydbilledet. Sådan skulle det altså ikke være på “…and justice for all”.

Publiceret på sh site 18.08. 2018.