See the testimony.
Flemming Rasmussen, the producer of Metallica's early albums, spoke in an interview with the Alphabetallica Podcast about the production of the album "...And Justice For All," which was frequently criticized for its quiet bass sound. Metallica's 1988 album was their first with bassist Jason Newsted, who joined after the death of Cliff Burton.
Rasmussen explains:
“What happened was, we had a mix that had a really good sound, with a lot of bass. And the bass… I want to make this clear; the bass on “…And Justice For All” was fantastic. Jason plays very well. He was probably showing that he had value, that he was as good as Cliff, and in my opinion he is. It’s a different style, but he’s as good a bassist as Cliff, just different.”.
I listened to the bass tracks and they're really amazing. They sound great, he plays well. But they listened to the mix and said, 'Okay, turn the bass down, change this, this, and this, and then turn the bass down even more.' So you can barely hear it. And after that was done, they said, 'Turn it down another 3 decibels.'.
I have no idea why. Maybe they were suffering because of Cliff. I have no idea. But imagine my surprise when I heard the album. I was like, 'What...? What?!'
It was heavily criticized when it was released, and people were surprised by the sound. It's very direct, in your face. '...And Justice For All' was probably the album that most influenced the sound of an entire generation of hardcore metal bands. They wanted to sound like '...And Justice For All'. That very direct sound. Every time I hear bass and drums like that I say, 'I'm sorry about that. My mistake.' Well, I didn't mix it!”
