Which songs did Jason Newsted write for Metallica?
One of the few reasons why Metallica is able to exist in their present form is because of Jason Newsted. Even though he was treated as the new kid in the group all the way up until the day he left them behind, the band would have never moved on properly after the death of Cliff Burton if not for his approach to bass guitar. And while his songwriting contributions were few and far between, some of the best moments from their transitionary period came from him twisting the usual formula around.
But was anyone really going to argue with James Hetfield writing all of the riffs in the group? The frontman has practically written a damn rulebook on what thrash is supposed to sound like, and with Newsted being brought in as a bass player who played with a pick, most of his first sessions were him trying to mimic whatever Hetfield was doing before the frontman forced him to come up with his own basslines.
That being said, it’s not like you were going to hear any of Newsted’s lines on his first record. Although it may have seemed like a joke at the time, the idea of including no bass frequencies in the final mix of And Justice For All is one of the most boneheaded decisions in hard rock history, with the foundations of what could be great Metallica songs reaching borderline demo-quality levels of bad in the mix.
That didn’t stop Newsted from getting his fair share of spots on other projects, eventually featuring on a few deep cuts from the band’s more commercial side in the 1990s. And if you look at the three songs that he did have a hand in writing, it’s a wonder what the band would have sounded like if they took some of his off-the-wall ideas more often.
So, which songs did Jason Newsted write for Metallica?
While Newsted was still the new kid in town and not welcome throughout most of the writing sessions for And Justice For All, it was bold of them to start the record with one of his riffs. Even though he was still finding his voice, the riff to ‘Blackened’ is Metallica through and through, complete with a strange time signature that keeps the listener on their toes every time they listen to it.
Then again, the fact that Newsted was buried in the mix meant that he needed to redeem himself on The Black Album. Although he had the makings of their next major instrumental work, what became ‘My Friend of Misery’ works much better when it’s not structured as a typical rock and roll song, especially when Newsted gets to lean back and play those gorgeous bass arpeggios towards the end.
But by the time they were working on their Load series of albums, there had to be a point where Newsted was starting to get annoyed. The band had more songs than they knew what to do with, and yet across two overly bloated albums, they only had room for one of his songs, ‘Where The Wild Things Are,’ which feels like it belongs in some ominous scene in a fantastical horror movie.
There was still plenty of room for Newsted to grow, but considering that his project Echobrain was forbidden from release by Hetfield, it was a no-brainer for him to leave Metallica behind. He may have left a lot of money still on the table, but when you’ve been stifled for that long, anyone would want to follow their muse and play what they feel rather than worry about the paycheck.
