The one person who brought Metallica back to basics: “The essence of Metallica”
Don’t let a band like Metallica fool you into thinking that being consistently fantastic rock legends is easy. While we watch Metallica now with the same kind of delight we did when they first hit the airwaves, and while they maintain the consistency they play with both in the studio and live, the band has had plenty of ups and downs.
There have been a number of changes throughout the band’s career, all with the view of doing what’s best for the band. For instance, in 2003, they replaced their long-term bassist Jason Newsted with Robert Trujillo. While Newsted had been an integral part for a long period of time, his stint with Metallica sadly came to an end, as the band decided they thought that it was best to part ways. While it was sad to mess with the line-up, Trujillo brought some great qualities to the outfit, which helped them progress.
“When we were getting to that point of needing to find a bass player, you know, when Rob was on the list, I was just thinking, no way he’s going to join us,” admitted Hetfield, “He’s too amazing. I mean, he’s too spectacular. I mean, the things that he’s got going on, I mean, he’s so connected and he’s so wanted and needed, you know, he’s just […] he might show up as kind of a, a kind gesture.”
One of the changes the band made that particularly shocked people, however, was when they announced that after working together for 15 years, they were no longer going to have Bob Rock produce their albums. They had been a formidable team throughout the group’s career, so it was a surprise to people when they decided to go in a different direction. Nevertheless, the band have since admitted they wanted to go back to basics, and didn’t think Rock was the best person to help them do that.
Instead, the band worked with legendary producer Rick Rubin, who helped them put together the grimy and raw-sounding album Death Magnetic. Many people call this record one of Metallica’s best because of the quality of the writing present throughout the album and the exciting production value heard in every note.
“Rick Rubin had us trying to capture the essence, the simplicity, the skeleton of Metallica,” admitted James Hetfield. Lars Ulrich agreed, noting, “I think one of his key things that he wanted to try and do was get Metallica to sound really live and real”.
Robert Trujillo, who had been playing in the band for five years by then, raised the point that the bands Rubin had worked with in the past made him the perfect person to work with on this record. He was used to capturing large sounds in a studio and bringing them back to earth, making them accessible for the listener, but also essentially putting the listener in the room with the band as they were recording the album.
“He also had a long history with thrash, you know, as a Slayer producer,” said Trujillo, “As the man who basically codified what speed thrash metal sounded like in the studio”.
It turns out that sometimes, the best way to remain consistent with the quality of your work is to change things around a bit and listen to your creative gut.
