Upcoming Metallica vinyl from MFSL

DAMN!!! That's two more "essential" DCC Gold Cds I remember reading about coming out, but did not buy at the time (now, I would have bought 'em all...)

My two fave Metallica albums even, bet they sound great, well, I'll have to get the Mofi vinyl, the next best thing?

I remember buying Masters on cassette the day it came out (my first album of theirs) and also the then new Iron Maiden offering "Somewhere in Time". The Metallica cassette blew the Iron Maiden cassette out of the water, made them seem like old farts... Masters has never been bettered IMNSHO...

Ironically, back then, Masters of Puppets gave my little brother a big headache, but he went onto become a bigger Metaillca head than me...

Saw them last fall, acoustic, at Bridge School Benefit, great show...

 

Lars talks openly about Justice being an album that he and James were in charge of, albeit jokingly...

On this topic, I'm only passing along whatever information I've read. As always, these things require a grain of salt, as rock star egos are always getting in the way. We'll likely never know for certain the story behind the Justice album, but this was my best educated guess. The question of the bass guitar was certainly still a sore point to Jason Newsted many years later, and that's quite telling.

If MoFi is given creative freedom to bring out the full sound, then we'll likely have some answers when they release Justice on vinyl. Will it sound dramatically different? Will we hear bass? Perhaps, perhaps not. But it will be an interesting bit of drama...certainly this is the album reissue I'm looking most forward to.

Oh, and thanks for the compliments. I think I'll add my essay to one of the books I'm writing. I could always use more material. Hopefully, the books will be finished and ready to roll in time for my birthday on April 15...that's the goal, at least...

 

Perhaps the reason behind the lack of bass on Justice is more practical and audio based. If they mixed it at high volumes on a system with an exaggerated bass response, perhaps we're just not hearing it the way it was originally heard. The old Hotel California monitor syndrome.

 

That Soulfly disc is pretty bad, but have you heard of Strapping Young Lad?

 

Nice - I wonder if we'll actually be able to hear some bass on 'Justice'?

Edit: This has already been discussed, although I think I'm more confused/annoyed by it now.

 

The lack of bass on AJFA has been well documented, but for me, the bass is almost non-existant on RTL and MOP. I can hear a little low-level gurgle/rumble of some sort, but that's about it. I think that bass guitar was recorded best on Kill'em All.

 

Justice needs a remix - the mix kills the album - then sell original mix and remix vinyl and audiophile CD's....

 

Am I the only one here who feels a tinge of disappointment over this announcement?

I was really, really, REALLY hoping that the early Metallica catalog would be handled by Steve and Kevin as part of the upcoming Warner vinyl reissues.

The DCC versions of Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets are superb, but it would be nice to hear Steve and Kevin's take on these titles in analog. Listening to the DCCs, it seems that Steve's emphasis for improvement (and the strength of his mastering approach) was in the realism and humanity of the vocals.

We can only keep our fingers crossed that whoever is half-speed mastering these discs takes a similar approach.

 

I'm not dissapointed, because the chance at some decent Metallica vinyl is better than no vinyl at all. Yeah, it's not a perfect world, so no Kevin/Steve involvement, but I'll take what I can get. Now, what do I do with the sealed copys of "Justice" and "The Black Album" that I've been holding on to for 15+ years

I'm kinda pumped that we might get decent a sounding version of Garage Inc. The CD is too maximized! I don't know if even good vinyl can help the loud sound of St. Anger, I think this one was brutalized in the recording process.

 

Have they mentioned if the MOFI reissues will be the original mixes of "Kill" and "Ride", or the current remixes that are available from Elektra?

 

Those albums were remixed??

 

Well, the first four albums were remixed sometime around 1995, after Metallica finally secured their masters. There was a lengthy legal battle with the label, but eventually it was settled for some undisclosed amount. You can definitely hear the difference on those CD's, and you can tell if you have the "newer" remix, as those CD's contain information for the Metallica Club (instead of Metallica Fan Club).

Hope that helps...

 

I don't think they were ever remixed. I believe it has been discussed here before that there were "secret remasters." Never heard a peep about remixing. I believe the releases that have E/M Ventures in the legal tag on the bottom of the CDs are the new versions. I have one at home that I didn't even realize I had until I read about it on here.

 

I've said this before. Cliff was hailed as this great bass player, but you can barely hear the guy! The DCCs of MOP and RTL thankfully bring that out a bit more so you can hear the guy really roar.

 

To add a minor amount of fuel to the bass debate, I'll note that several Metallica songs, from the original multitrack masters, are in the video game "Rock Band." I mention this only because you can play bass on the songs, and that the bass on said songs is totally awesome. (The songs in question are "...And Justice For All," "Blackened," and "Ride the Lightning.")

 

Yes. I have heard about this and I'm totally perplexed by it as well. It would be great if someone could jump in and clarify. So did some session bass player re-record the bass parts for these tunes for the purpose of the video game?? How do we know the bass lines are from the "original multitrack masters"?? If that were the case, they would be Newsted's and Burton's original bass parts turned up super loud, correct?

 

Will "Am I Evil?" be on Kill 'em All???

 

I guess they would be the original tracks if they are from said original multitracks. There have been a couple instances like Living Colour where they actually went in and re-recorded Cult Of Personality either because they couldn't find the multis or simply because Sony wouldn't cough up the tapes.

I would guess not. Haven't they since printed the CD without those songs? They weren't on there to begin with. I think that it was done back in the late 80s by Elektra in an effort to get people who had the Megaforce version to rebuy it. Kind of like how record companies these days add tracks months after the original record is released or even do a deluxe edition.

 

We know they're from the original multitracks because Harmonix (the game's creators) said so. If they weren't, it'd be blatant false advertising. They readily admit when one of the songs in the game is a cover, and the Metallica tracks are definently masters - and they DEFINENTLY have bass.

 

That's the whole reason why I won't buy the new one. I guess I'll have to look for an old cassette of it or something. Darn it, that would suck if there was no "Am I Evil?"

 

Whew! We have quite a bit of misinformation on this thread.

1) No Metallica album has ever been re-mixed. Kill 'Em All through ...And Justice For All were remastered in 1995-1996 after the band re-negotiated their royalty contracts. These remasters are easily identified by the "E/M Ventures" notation below the song listings.

2) It is unlikely "Blitzkrieg" and "Am I Evil" will appear (again) on Kill 'Em All. They are currently in print as part of the "Garage Inc" compilation and would appear there, assuming this gets a vinyl re-issue.

 

Here is a good resource for Metallica release information. This entire page is dedicated just to the various "Kill 'Em All" releases, whew!

http://www.encycmet.com/discography/Kill_em_all.shtml

 

that's pretty much the account put forth in "and justice for all: the truth about metallica," an unauthorized bio/history of the band from 1981 until "St. Anger." in a nutshell, lars, james and kirk were still grieving over cliff, jason was the new guy and there was a lot of resentment over his walking into a sweet gig just as the band was hitting it big. what's more, lars still wasn't sure jason was right for the gig (lars wanted joey vera from armored saint.) all of this came together in the mixing process, where lars had rasmussen turn the bass down to the point where you could not quite hear it, then went half a notch lower.

it's a shame, too, because jason busted his *** for that band. the level of abuse he took during the MOP tour was brutal - hazing of the worst sort (the band admitted in that playboy interview from 2000 or 2001 that they put him through hell because they didn't think he should just walk into so great a job without paying some dues). the same book mentioned above cites a magazine interview where kirk said AJFA sounds like ****, and if i recall correctly, lars admits as much.

as for cliff, i've heard it said that lars was the brain, james the heart, kirk the conscience and cliff the soul of metallica.

 

These releases were announced in January 2007 on the Because Sound Matters site.

My theory is that since the band has one record left on their contract, Elektra asked them for a few more chances at a cash grab before they jump ship.

The band probably allowed the remastering to ramp up to the new album and to create additional negotiating leverage should they decide they want to stay with Warners.

 

They are remasters, not remixes. This all happened as a result of Elektra's aniticipatory breach of contract lawsuit they slapped on Metallica.

It never went to court and the settlement is not public knowledge, but I believe part of the settlement may have been Elektra footing the bill for these remasters.

Kill 'em All had been out of print on CD for some time and I think Metallica said, "if you want this one reissued, remaster it and the rest of them while you are at it". My feeling is Elektra bowed and granted the request because, at the time, Metallica accounted for a significant percentage of Elektra's revenue.

Again, just my theory.