Say what you will about 90s Metallica and especially early 2000s Metallica, but you have to admit 80s Metallica kicked ass. And I don’t think anyone can deny the impact “Master of Puppets” had on rock music in general, not just metal, so regardless of your feelings for the band nowadays, you have to respect who they were a few decades ago.
I guess whenever I hear an influential album, I always ask myself… “Did these guys know they were making history when they were recording it, or were they just doing their job without thinking too much of the future?”
Well, someone sort of asked the same question to Flemming Rasmussen, the record producer behind Metallica‘s best albums.
Phoenix New Times: “Master of Puppets” is widely regarded as one of the best heavy metal albums of all time. Did you know you were onto something special when you were working on it 25 years ago?
Flemming Rasmussen: Oh, yes. Right from the demos, we pretty much knew this was gonna be a killer album. I think we all felt that this was gonna be the best Metallica album yet, as we had a bunch of really strong songs. Even the instrumentals were awesome.
PNT: You produced three consecutive Metallica albums — “Ride The Lightning”, “Puppets” and “Justice” — but they have three distinctly different sounds. Was that a conscious decision by you and the band?
Flemming: Yes. The difference between “Ride” and “Master” is evolution, as “Master” is a perfection of the sound we started to evolve on “Ride”. And in my opinion, we did really master it on “Master”. That album sounds so good. When I got onto the “Justice” album, they were a month into the session, and it was a new studio, etc., so we decided on a more up-front and dry sound. As for the mix, they had already hired someone else to do this, so I had no say in that. But it’s still a classic metal album, and the sound has inspired a whole new generation of metal bands.
Read full interview here.
Must be empowering being able to say “I was there!” when talking about the recording of such classic albums. Can you imagine the shame of the people behind “St. Anger” though?
Source: Blabbermouth
