...And Justice for All producers reunite! Toby Wright and Flemming Rasmussen

[BABMusic]

I was 13 when I first heard the album and I listened to it a lot from age 15-16. It reminds me of those overcast weekend days when you felt kind of bored.
I remember also reading that Kirk said there were a few harmonic mistakes on the album he made. I'm not sure, but I always wondered if the lead solo that ends at 4:02 on To Live is To Die, is one of those he's referring to. The solo ends on a high E while the rhythm is playing low F# power chords. It still wouldn't be "wrong" to do this, as it would just be accenting the 7th of the chord, but I always wondered if Kirk really intended that.

 

[311boogieman]

 

[Uzi Nein Millimetah]

My intro to Metallica was MOP via one of those mail order companies back in the day. I had heard Harvester of Sorrow on the underground radio show, but not even a single song from MOP when I ordered it! Bought MOP base on the album cover. Satan, strings, graves....yeah!! Clean intro to Battery.....hmmmmm...... .......then BAM! Majesty awaits.

My next experience was a friend letting me borrow Justice and Kill 'Em All cassettes, followed by Garage Days. Talk about 4 different worlds! Stunning to think how much they changed in the first 5 years.

I loved all of their '80s albums immediately, even with vastly different sonic environments. The raw, dry, scooped crunch of Justice was received as an improvement by many, as the goal then was to see.....who has the BIGGEST Crunchberries of them all. I didn't even think about the missing bass then, although I remember not liking the sound of the bass drum.

 

[Beyond Black]

This was my first exposure to Metallica (bought the cassette at the mall when I was in 7th/8th? grade) and to this day is the standard that I judge their other recordings. Although I do hold MoP in high regard for the recording and songwriting, Garage Days just RIPS and gets to the damn point song-wise since it’s all covers and doesn’t have the meandering fat that portions of their other albums (save Kill ‘em All) tended to have.

Garage Days sounded immediate, tight when the performance was on the line but also playfully loose; like people who knew what they were doing and could execute it but also were having a great time. The guitar/bass tones are killer, the drums feel great and the whole thing just sounds heavy and pissed. Loved it then and still do today.

Agree 100% about GD, well said….I wouldn’t say that MOP has any fat though, that’s a damn near perfect album.
AJFA definitely would’ve benefited from a nice trimming of meandering fat. Probably a good 10 minutes worth.

 

[thegame]

AJFA definitely would’ve benefited from a nice trimming of meandering fat. Probably a good 10 minutes worth.

Agreed 101%. That 10 minutes is called To Live is to play that boring main riff in F sharp to Death

 

[Techdeth]

I think Dyers Eve has the best tone on the album. It sounds like pure IIC+ IMO.

I don’t hear that . It sounds like that his parametric eq is doing ALOT .

 

[ZackElekes]

I don’t hear that . It sounds like that his parametric eq is doing ALOT .

Can confirm, those EQ’s are doing ALOT of heavy lifting!

 

[JimAnsell2]

me and my old bestie from my band were like mark IIC+, III, and IV whores back in the mid 2000's. i have a lot of experience with those amps. between the two of us, we owned like a dozen various forms of C+, every stripe, and countless mark IV's from the 3 eras, every variation of metal grill cabinet, the road ready cabs, and recto series cabs, in addition to about a dozen various marshall cabs. No matter what you try, you're going to be still looking for something. its that massive 1k - 1.2khz drop, the bass boost in between 80 and 240, and the high pass filter set to your liking, to get where your presence knob or 6600hz slider can't quite get to.

A parametric is a must in the loop of those amps to get that metallica sound. its going to be either too boomy, too boxy, or too hollow, or even too bright without one. theres always something "just not quite right" if you're shooting for pure metallica out of Mark series amps. We used to swap speakers, cabinets, pickups, tubes till we didn't have any money left for experiementing lol. would have saved a boat load of time and money if i'd just been open to eq pedals back then.

 

[Rackman]

It's gotta be weird to track a four piece band, send it off to mix, and get back a three piece. You'd think someone would have noticed...

 

[Techdeth]

Can confirm, those EQ’s are doing ALOT of heavy lifting!

Ya that’s why I my mark III++ greenie . It gets justice time pretty good with the eq . It’s just got more justice type high end then my old 2c++ had .

 

[JimAnsell2]

Can confirm, those EQ’s are doing ALOT of heavy lifting!

our school of thought back then was that there must be some way to get that tone raw without any external additives. just the right combo of amp, tubes, speakers, cab, pickups, and guitar.
idk why i was such a purist about it, its not like the info about the PM's wasn't out there back then, i guess i just didn't understand. either way, i learned a lot trying, but once i got that Master Effects PMEQ. it was like holy shit, there it is! That Canadian pedal maker damn near changed my life with that pedal. I've even been able to reduce my rig to my mark Iv head and a single, stock, widebody thiele cabinet and that PMEQ can make that cabinet sound like a tiny, balanced, strong 4x12. not a boxy, honky 1x12.

 

[jeff5]

Thanks for reminding me about this!
Indeed side two of the cassette sounded bit different. Also, if I am not mistaken Dyers Eve was cut after the beginning? 60 min cassette didn't have enough space.... It was years later that I heard the whole song

I remember Dyer's Eve being my favorite song on the album so I don't think it was cut from the cassette. It was long ago and I could be remembering wrong though. I also had it on CD when they started coming out.

 

[stanbog]

You are correct if you had the original cassette. I only had copies recorded on standard 60min cassettes and those were too short.
The original side 2 is almost 35min long