The Metallica Thread v. Reloaded

[cramx3]

Well maybe he doesnt have the creative mind to write music and is perfectly happy touring, playing the normal Metallica songs, and collecting fat paychecks?

[ozzy554]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallicas-lars-ulrich-says-identity-of-next-albums-producer-is-certainly-not-gonna-surprise-anybody/

According to lars the Identity of the person producing the new album isn't a surprise. If its Rick Rubin again than the album has been downgraded from a possible pre-order to a torrent. I thought the songs on Death Magnetic were pretty good (although a bit generic.) I would like it more if Rick had not ruined it with the loudness war bullshit. He did an alright job on the sabbath album but I dont want him anywhere near metallica ever again.

[JayOctavarium]

Steven Wilson

[black_biff_stadler]

Quincy Jones, you fucking n00bs.

[BlobVanDam]

If it's Rick Rubin again, my expectations for this album will drop considerably. It would be the least surprising choice given the success of DM.

[Zook]

Probably Bob Rock.

[BlobVanDam]

I would much rather Bob Rock than Rick Rubin, but I'm not sure it's likely after St Anger.

[black_biff_stadler]

I'd like to see Butch Vig or Brendan O'Brien give it a go.

[Dark Castle]

They aughta get Kurt Ballou on the job.
Ain't happening, not in a million years, but that guy knows how to produce a fucking album.

[ariich]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallicas-lars-ulrich-says-identity-of-next-albums-producer-is-certainly-not-gonna-surprise-anybody/

According to lars the Identity of the person producing the new album isn't a surprise. If its Rick Rubin again than the album has been downgraded from a possible pre-order to a torrent. I thought the songs on Death Magnetic were pretty good (although a bit generic.) I would like it more if Rick had not ruined it with the loudness war bullshit. He did an alright job on the sabbath album but I dont want him anywhere near metallica ever again.

I thought the problem was with Ted Jensen's mastering rather than Rick Rubin's general producing.

[BlobVanDam]

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallicas-lars-ulrich-says-identity-of-next-albums-producer-is-certainly-not-gonna-surprise-anybody/

According to lars the Identity of the person producing the new album isn't a surprise. If its Rick Rubin again than the album has been downgraded from a possible pre-order to a torrent. I thought the songs on Death Magnetic were pretty good (although a bit generic.) I would like it more if Rick had not ruined it with the loudness war bullshit. He did an alright job on the sabbath album but I dont want him anywhere near metallica ever again.

I thought the problem was with Ted Jensen's mastering rather than Rick Rubin's general producing.

Actually, Ted Jensen has said it was brick walled in the mixing stage before it even got to him, and he didn't want to be associated with it. So I guess blame whoever mixed it. I don't know how anyone could have ok'd that album at any stage and thought it was fit to sell.

[rickhawk80]

I would much rather Bob Rock than Rick Rubin, but I'm not sure it's likely after St Anger.

Bite your tongue -- Bob Rock enabled all of Metallica's worst ideas on their last few albums when he should've had the balls as producer to say things like, "Let's edit this repetitive song down a bit," and "No, Lars, those snares sound like shit" on St. Anger.  I seriously hope he never teams up with Metallica again.

I'd happily take another Rick Rubin effort over more Bob Rock.

I say bring back Fleming Rasmussen!!!!

[BlobVanDam]

I would much rather Bob Rock than Rick Rubin, but I'm not sure it's likely after St Anger.

Bite your tongue -- Bob Rock enabled all of Metallica's worst ideas on their last few albums when he should've had the balls as produce to say, "No, Lars, those snares sound like shit" on St. Anger.  I seriously hope he never teams up with Metallica again.

I'd happily take another Rick Rubin effort.

Rick Rubin is so overrated. I can't say I've been impressed with any album he's worked on this millennium. In fact, the two main examples that come to mind that I've heard in recent years are just stripped back blatant rehashes of the bands' older material. Uninspired and under-produced.
Bob Rock produced their biggest (and imo best) album, and other material I've really liked. Sure, St Anger was unquestionably bad, but at least Metallica were constantly progressing as a band under him. Rick Rubin seems to encourage stale pandering.

[Kotowboy]

Flemming is also over rated. He was just the engineer on "the big 3" .

And those 3 albums don't exactly sound stellar. He was bought in at the last minute when Lars and James botched And Justice For All.

People seem to think that bringing back Flemming will make them write like those albums again - which is obviously bollocks since

that was the "goal" of Death Magnetic and that album is extremely forced.

They need a producer who will tell them they can do better and can get the best performances out of everyone AND make it sound good.

Which is a very tall order in Metallica world.

I think the absolute BEST we can hope for is an album that sounds as good as the Ronnie Rising Medley.  I'm guessing it will sound pretty close to that.


PLUS : All Rick Ruin seems to do is to tell bands " write like when you was good " and then just drops in once in a while to say " yes " or " no " and take 100% of the credit.

AND : Saint Anger would not have sounded like that if METALLICA didn't want it to. Too many people seem to think that Bob Rock stormed in one day and said it's going to sound like

THIS and Lars & James had no option but to go along with it

In the SKOM movie - Lars was saying even before St Anger began that he wanted an "ugly nasty fucked up album".  I suppose that was all Bob Rock's fault ?

[rickhawk80]

AND : Saint Anger would not have sounded like that if METALLICA didn't want it to. Too many people seem to think that Bob Rock stormed in one day and said it's going to sound like

THIS and Lars & James had no option but to go along with it

In the SKOM movie - Lars was saying even before St Anger began that he wanted an "ugly nasty fucked up album".  I suppose that was all Bob Rock's fault ?

I don't think Bob Rock "forced" them to sound like that on St. Anger but after the length of his relationship with them and his ability to influence their sound, song structure, etc., on prior albums I would've hoped he'd have the guts to man up and point out ways St. Anger could've sounded better.  I fall in the minority of people who actually like St. Anger, but I see so many things they could've done to tighten up that album -- so many of the average and repetitive 8-minute songs could've kicked ass if trimmed to 5 minutes, for example -- and I do hold Bob accountable for not showing more backbone when they needed direction.

[BlobVanDam]

Bob Rock was helping Metallica make exactly the record Metallica wanted to make. Bob Rock is at partial fault for becoming too friendly with the band at that point, and they were right to give him the boot after that, but the album ultimately sucked because of Metallica's decisions. It wasn't actively Bob Rock's fault.

To paraphrase, the lesson here is-
"The only thing necessary for St Anger to be recorded is for good producers to do nothing"

I also fault Rick Rubin for not having the backbone to tell Metallica they were too old to be trying to write the same music they did 20 years ago. I also fault him for apparently not having a functional set of ears.

DM too needed serious trimming all around to be a better album. They could have had an album of kick-ass 5-6 minute metal songs, but instead they ended up with an album of bloated 8 minute songs because of their contrived attempt to emulate their classic albums, with poorly written and performed instrumental sections tacked in. Rick Rubin should have cut the middle section of every single track, and they could have had a great 50-60 minute album, instead of an average 74 minutes.
Tossing a copy of MoP in front of the band and saying "copy that" is a terrible approach to producing an album.

[425]

Hearing Lars STILL defending that mastering job is worrying. I'm sorry, Lars, I really liked the album but it sounds horrible, and you deserve better. Even if it doesn't sound bad to you, it sounds bad to a lot of people. And I guarantee you that the Guitar Hero version will not detract from your listening experience (if you can't hear the distortion on DM you can only slightly hear), while improving that of a lot of people. It's seriously not that hard to admit that you were wrong about the production and that there is objectively something wrong with it. I guarantee you that every one of your fans will either a) not care or b) become far more likely to buy your next album if you say that.

But yeah, if Lars says there are two names and that they're not surprising, the names are probably Bob Rock and Rick Rubin. Given that Bob Rock produced The Black Album, which is probably their best sounding album, and Rubin produced Death Magnetic which was totally botched from an audio standpoint, I'll definitely take Bob Rock. And the songwriting is already in progress, so from that standpoint it's going to be what it's going to be, for better or worse. Personally, like Blob said, I'm rather hoping for an album of mostly 5-6 minute songs, which I think they still may be able to pull off.

[Dark Castle]

Rick Rubin is the producer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and their albums sound great. Rick Rubin is not the producer for everybody, and he simply doesn't fit with Metallica. Doesn't make him a bad producer though.

[425]

I think Death Magnetic is the only Rubin-produced album I have, so I'm not necessarily judging him as a producer, only saying that I'd rather not see him produce the next Metallica album.

[Dark Castle]

That's fair enough, and I agree, I'd rather see someone else produce the next Metallica album 

[The King in Crimson]

Rubin is pretty notorious for compressing the fuck out of albums. Californiacation is a pretty notorious victim of the loudness war.

[Kotowboy]

Metallica can take as long as they want and keep doing vanity projects that lose money.

I can still listen to Sacred Mother Tongue, Mastodon and Trivium and Dream Theater and Lamb Of God . 

[JayOctavarium]

DOnt ForGET GreEN DAy

[Kotowboy]

Why are you writing like a teenage girl on twitter ?

oMG gREEN dAYYYYYYYY  I...iM nOT oKAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[mikeyd23]

Personally, I'd love to see Bob Rock come back as the producer for the next Metallica record.  My thought is this: Metallica is going to write the style of music that THEY want to, whether that be "classic thrash" Metallica or "Black Album" Metallica or "The Load - era" Metallica or something completely different.  At this point in their careers, they are going to write songs to create an album in the style they want to write in, not the style some producer wants.

Lots of people credit Bob Rock for changing Metallica's style on the Black Album, which isn't correct. Its clearly documented that Metallica had the songs for that album written and by the time Bob got involved he only was allowed to have input on small things related to the actual songs themselves, such as tempo.  Mainly he worked with the band to capture the best sonic representation of the group in the studio, in which I believe he succeeded in as the Black Album sounds fantastic. Point being, Metallica is going to create music in the style that they want to, not the style the producer wants them to.  For DM, they wanted to go back to the "classic thrash" Metallica style and Rick helped them (in his own way) travel down that direction, because its what the band wanted.

That being the case, I'd much rather have Bob Rock there.  If Metallica is going to determine the style of the album musically, not the producer, the main role I see the producer playing in ensuring sonic quality.  For that, I chose Bob Rock without question.

[Kotowboy]

What ?

How bad did Metallica suck live in 2004 ?

Well ASK NO MORE !!!!

https://www.livemetallica.com/live-music/0,23/Metallica-mp3-flac-download-4-28-2004-Freedom-Hall--Louisville-KY.html

[BlobVanDam]

https://www.guitarworld.com/metallica-cover-ozzy-osbourne-beatles-and-deep-purple-musicares-map-fund-benefit-video

Metallica covering some songs, including The Beatles, Ozzy, and Deep Purple

[Onno]

Those are pretty cool. I chuckled when James sung "Diarrhea of a Madman!" 

[Mladen]

I never thought I'd see Metallica cover The Beatles. Not that it was a brilliant cover or whatever, it was still touching and at the same time important to see that even Metallica acknowledges The Beatles. What a pleasant surprise.

[cramx3]

Metallica does do some pretty good cover songs, ill give them that.

[Anguyen92]

I never thought I'd see Metallica cover The Beatles. Not that it was a brilliant cover or whatever, it was still touching and at the same time important to see that even Metallica acknowledges The Beatles. What a pleasant surprise.

On that note, this reminds me.  There's a cover band called Beatallica where they mashed up Beatles and Metallica songs.  It's not bad.  It's weird however.  Metallica approves of them though.

[me7]

Beatallica are amazing. I genuinely love "The Thing that should not let it be".

[Mladen]

Yeah, I remember hearing that. But now, Beatallica became reality.   

[mikeyd23]

On that note, this reminds me.  There's a cover band called Beatallica where they mashed up Beatles and Metallica songs.  It's not bad.  It's weird however.  Metallica approves of them though.

Metallica approves of them and DT approves of them as well.  I saw Beatallica open for DT in 2010 while DT was on tour opening for Iron Maiden.  DT played a couple one-off headlining shows during that tour run, one of which was in Ohio and Beatallica opened for them.

MP even came out and joined them for a song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmtsUQYspvk

[fadetoblackdude7]

They need to bring in Nick Raskulinecz to produce the next one.....virtually every record I've heard by him lately is excellent.