In a brand new interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, Steve Thompson, a prominent music producer who has worked with a vast array of rock icons. They include Guns N' Roses ("Appetite For Destruction"), Korn ("Follow The Leader") and SoundGarden ("A-Sides") spoke about the mixing sessions for Metallica 's classic 1988 album, "…And Justice For All", and the criticism that record has received through the years for the bass parts being nearly inaudible.

It's been a long head belief that for some unknown reason, the sound of Jason Newsted's bass had been intentionally stifled by someone either on the production team, or within the band itself. Most thought it was at the direction of producer Thompson.

But in the recent interview, Thompson states that it was Metallica drummer Lars Ullrich who demanded that the bass lines be silenced. When asked about the experience of working on the project and the long held belief that he was the one that silenced Newstedt's bass work, Thompson replied:

"Well, what I wanted to do and what Lars wanted to do was totally different, which kind of upset me a little bit. I loved Matallica and was very familiar with them. We got the call to do it and went up to Bearsville Studios in upstate New York and the guys were on the Monsters Of Rock tour at the time. So what they would do is fly in by helicopter, a day here and a day there just to go through things."

"Lars knew exactly the sound and the parameters of everything he wanted on his drums. So he would actually bring his photos of a Klark Teknik's EQ setup because he had a certain way he wanted the drums to sound. I said, 'Call me when he's happy.'"

When asked what he thought when he finally heard the set-up, Thompson replied:

"I said to myself, 'These sound like ass. Terrible sounding.' I chased everybody out of the room and redesigned the drum sound and brought the guitars up. Jason killed it on bass. Perfect marriage with [James] Hetfield's guitars."

This apparently enraged Ullrich, who when he heard thompson's mix, could only reply "Turn that off, what happened to my drum sound?" Thompson was ordered by Ullrich to bring the bass level down to point where it was "barely audible." Thompson obliged, but the drummer then told him to bring it "down another 5 decibels."

"It wasn't 'fuck this guy, let's turn his bass down.' It was more like, we're mixing, so let's pat ourselves on the back and turn the rhythms and the drums up. But we basically kept turning everything else up until the bass disappeared."

                                                    Lars Ullrich - Metallica

Thompson went on to say that later that evening, he contacted his manager, as well as Metallica's management team, asking to be taken off the project and to have his name removed from it, as he didn't agree with the direction the project was taking. In the end the band talked Thompson into the finished project, though he has stated that his biggest regret was not being able to produce the album in his vision.

In a 2013 interview with Metal Exiles, Newsted stated about his missing bass parts on the "…And Justice For All" record:

"There are so many years of water under the bridge with that and I can now see it for what it is. There is no real confusion or mystery to me now that I can look back after time and look on the situation."

In a 2008 interview with the webzine Decibel, Ullrich stated that the bass omission was "not intentional" and that from the beginning the album was intended as the "James and Lars show." Lars stated, apparently while laughing:

"It wasn't fuck this guy, let's turn his bass down. It was more like, we're mixing, so let's pat ourselves on the back and turn the rhythms and the drums up. But we basically kept turning everything else up until the bass disappeared."

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