Metal’s most famous bass-less album now has bass. I’m not talking about the various versions of …And Justice for All’s songs that have cropped up with “enhanced bass” or “listener-overdubbed bass” or what-have-you. I’m talking about the actual, isolated bass lines that Jason Newsted played.
Thanks to today’s “plastic instruments” video games, they are now audible on YouTube – five of the album’s nine songs, anyway. (The list of Metallica songs made available for video games is here.) It’s quite a revelation to hear these bass lines. I’ve been listening to …And Justice for All for over two decades, and I’ve never heard this aspect of the record. Of course, it brings to mind what the album might have sounded like with audible bass – but then again, people have been playing “What If?” ever since Cliff Burton died. These clips will only add fuel to that fire.
(Note that the bass does not enter until 0:57 in “Blackened”, 0:33 in “…And Justice for All”, and 1:04 in “One”.)
. . .
“Blackened” (Bass Only)
. . .
“…And Justice for All” (Bass Only)
. . .
“One” (Bass Only)
. . .
“The Shortest Straw” (Bass Only)
. . .
“Dyers Eve” (Bass Only)
. . .
Thanks to Studio Multitracks for the inspiration.
. . .
Woah. The bass track for Dyers Eve is fucking amazing. Has anyone tried mixing these back into the original mixes, see what kind of difference bringing the bass up would do? Alternatively found someone else who has done in somewhere. Would be cool to hear.
Some dude at the Andy Sneap forum uploaded a version of Dyer’s eve with the original bass louder on the mix, and to my ears it sounded much, much better. There’s a monster distorted bass tone hidden behind that wall of guitars that IMO is totally worth listening to. A shame. Playing is as tight as it can get too.
Nope, don’t care. The absence of bass is a crucial component of the Justice sound, and is in fact one of the things that makes it a favorite album of mine. The brittle, trebley sound perfectly suits the intricacy of the songs. If you wanna hear ‘em with bass, listen to the Binge & Purge live set. Me, I’m gonna keep on listening to (and loving) the dry, crisp Justice as it was meant to be heard.
I have quite literally been listening to …And Justice For All since the day it was released. This is amazing. It’s appalling that even today the band refuses to correct this injustice.
Thank you Cosmo.
A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a YouTube video of “Blackened” with the original basslines audible in the mix and it was INCREDIBLE. I listened to it like five times in a row and it made me absolutely furious that the album was mixed the way it was. I couldn’t believe the song got EVEN BETTER. I typically hate senseless reissues that do nothing of value to the sound quality of an album, but I think it’s absolutely essential that “…And Justice for All” be remixed and reissued. Let the band add to their piles of cash, I’d gladly pay for a new copy of the album the way it always should have sounded in the first place.
thats an interesting pic of jason in the header, with the cutaway of the rope dragging down lady justice, the rope , looks like a bass string itself. will jason ever get any justice?
Damn, that’s some low-action-havin’, fret-buzzin’ bass.
There are you-tube clips of Cliff in the very same format, lots of crazy little bass runs that were previously buried on RTL, I remember reading once Hetfield said Cliff was always quiet in the mix because he hit the pickups a lot with his fingers when he played, and it made unwanted percussive noise.
Krig – People have done pretty much everything with Metallica isolated tracks using various combinations of instruments or the original songs. Just poke around on YouTube.
…And INjustice for Jason!
See, I’m used to the existing sound, like pdf is.
On the other hand, I’d LOVE to have a remixed album with the bass, well, audible. There’s plenty of room for both.
(For that matter, I’d love to have them explain what the fucking hell they were thinking with the original mastering…)
I used to always want a remixed Justice, but it is what it is…and for various reasons, that’s how they made it back then. I think it sounds great as is, and while it would be fun to hear it with some monster bass…I’d rather that be left to blogs, and not an official release.
These tracks sound great, but they’re so divorced from my previous experience of the songs that they feel like bass-only covers of Metallica songs.
Ever seen the ‘Classic Albums’ TV show, where they get the producer to talk about recordings while playing them back through the mixing desk, turning tracks on and off and re-mixing on the fly? I would LOVE to do that. I wonder if there’s a future for music distribution forms containing all recorded tracks independently, to let the listener adjust the mix on playback for kicks?
I wish Metallica would officially release a remastered version of Justice. It’s such a hard album to listen to because although the compositions themselves are great, the production is flat-out awful. The guitars sound dry, the drums sound hollow, and the bass is strangely absent. If this were a lesser album I wouldn’t tolerate it, but in this case it’s worth enduring.
You can use this site http://youtubedoubler.com in order to easily compare using the volume button of the bass only video. Exemple with Dyers Eve http://youtubedoubler.com/XiYh
The two videos must start together. So, you’ll maybe need to refresh the page but it permit to make a fast comparaison.
never understood why they did this to Jason on ‘…Justice.’ Like cutting off your nose to spite your face. These sound awesome. Jason is a class act, it’s too bad he never got the credit he deserved in this band. Luckily he can sleep on a matress filled with the ungodly amount of money he made in the band!!!
The album is a masterpiece as it was released. I’d still check this out though. I’m fine with what I got though. Just like I was in 1989.
I would like to hear James and Lars’ take on the reason why it was mixed so low on the final version we all heard. I guess there’s a few reasons. We should all keep listening to the original mix and just enjoy those bass lines on their own. Trying to remix it will just add to the pile of crap re-released and repackaged and sold again to a bunch of fans not knowing any better than a volume remaster and shitty and noisy black block wave form.