Best Metallica Guitar Tone ever recorded?

Best Metallica Guitar Tone ever recorded?

  • Total voters
    78
It's a tough question because the band's albums all sound so different, and what we think of as "guitar tone" is so often "guitar + bass + drum tone" as everything kind of blends together. But still, I just went back and listened to a couple minutes of a few records and right now to me it’s a dead heat between Black Album, AJFA, and Garage Inc, for different reasons. Yeah it's a cop out answer but hey whatever. They're all awesome in their own way.
 
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Rex Rocker said:
They released like 3 or 4 good albums like 30-40 years ago out of the like 15-20 or so records they have.
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Agreed. I can't call myself a Metallica fan otherwise people think I mean their whole catalogue, when I only mean the first three albums. Guess I like those albums more than I like the band.
 
I voted MOP but god damn, Fight Fire With Fire is legendary and my all time favorite high gain Marshall tone.
 
It can not be denied how heavy and devastating the production on the black album is. Could you imagine if The Thing That Should Not Be was produced and mixed in that way?
 
stanbog said:
Depends on the era and the context at the time of release.
But if have to go with one - Garage Inc.
Even better - Ronny Rising
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You get it, that tone on the Ronnie Rising Medley is damn near perfect. That came out around 2014ish but somehow it didn't seem like that tone translated to the Hardwired album which came out two years. It was close but not where that song is. The Mercyful Fate medley is also an incredible sound. Both songs are just massive tone and fills out perfect.
 
311splawndude said:
I saw the attached on Facebook. It was in the Metallica Gear History group. I thought the leading album their, Black, was an odd choice. Maybe not odd, but not my choice. So I thought I'd do the same poll here and see how it contrasts.

MOP was the best for me. It was a game changer. That rubbery crunch that just dominated the entire album. :yes:

What is yours?

PS: I realize this does not capture all the albums, I'm just matching up to the poll on Facebook. Use the "Other" choice and write it in a post response. For example, I know Load/Reload is not a favorite around here but I definitely like the guitar tone on that one. :dunno:
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I love load abs reload
 
Complete Production?

Load, Garage Inc. , Black Album and MOP. Especially The first 3 mentioned because Bob just knew how to make them sounding sonically good.

But all of that is very subjective
 
That's a hard one to chose.

on Garge Inc. there are some great sounds (turn the page and loverman for example), but it's different from song to song, so as whole not my favorite.
Black Album is a great guitar tone and been my favorite for years, but not so much anymore.
Reload is also good tones, like them more than load.
I do like the raw guitar tones on St. anger (that fuckin snare ruins everything though). I do not like anything after that.
justice is a bit thin, but there where times when i really liked it.
i do not like anything older than that. No MOP and especially not that rotten boosted marshall sound. i hate it. i can not even see how somebody would like that.
 
Thanks for all the votes.

MOP is in the lead to no surprise but Garage Inc and Black are tied for second. Of course now I can't find the FB poll that prompted this poll here. Black was in the lead there but the demographic might be slightly different.

Oh well....have a great weekend.
 
MOP and Garage Inc for meat whole albums. AJFA too. The tones on 'The Prince' and the 'Mercyful Fate' medley immediately come to mind.
I can't stand Black album tones anymore, maybe because it was overplayed then and still is. Album production is great but the guitar tone is gutless and generic.
Death Magnetic and 72 tones are like a burnt Japanese Wagyu steak, so much good gear and studio opportunity for greatness, and they over-cooked the shit out of it to a crisp. HWTSD is just fractionally better than those two though.
 
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