Remember Steve Thompson? Yeah, the guy who handled mixing duties on METALLICA‘s ‘…And Justice For All?‘ and also the one, who often takes a beating when it comes to the mixing bass on that very record. We recently had the opportunity to talk to this record producer about “Appetite For Destruction“, “…And Justice For All?“, “Ugly“, “Bring the Noize” and Korn‘s “Follow The Leader.”
Steve Thompson is an American producer who is a very familiar face when it comes to handling duties or just in studio exercises. He boasts about having worked with bands of excellent repertoire, such as that of METALLICA, GUNS N’ ROSES, ANTHRAX, LIFE OF AGONY, KORN and many others through the years. He is also a seven times Grammy winner and has worked on a lot of platinum, diamond and gold records.
So recently, on our podcast Talk Toomey, we had the honour to host him and he did shine a light on many topics that were covered during the time period. One of them was the hot and viral topic of the missing bass on METALLICA‘s ‘…And Justice For All?‘. Toomey and Steve talk about how the recording process for the same album went leading up to the events of the absence of bass. Steve says how he helped set up Lars the drum in the studio, he also says that Lars eventually was responsible for the almost negligible bass in the album. According to Steve, after the mix, Lars goes up to Steve and says “Turn it up, what happened to my drum sound?“, to which he replies, “You were serious?.” So Steve got the drum sound up, and that is when reportedly Lars asks Steve to bring down the bass by 6 dB, to a level where “it’s barely audible anymore“.
So Steve was annoyed with all this fuss despite confessing that he loved the band, but he didn’t like the direction the band was taking. He went ahead and asked his manager “to get somebody else” to mix it, but he was eventually convinced enough to stay and complete the task, which he did, ofcourse.
Steve says he does understand that “it is their record” and it is just his job to mix the sound however the band likes, he also states that his biggest regret was “not having enough time” on his own to mix it the way he wanted, since he liked the sound.
Host Toomey asks if there is going to be a remix/reissue of the ‘…And Justice For All?‘ album with a hope that the new issues will contain those missing bass lines. Steve replies that he did “sent them a bunch of pictures and some outtakes“, and since it was the album’s anniversary as well, it would be good enough for a reissue, but unfortunately he clearly states, “they have no desire in remixing the record“. He does not shy away in saying that the label might “keep it the way it is or might remaster“, but that looks like a far cry from the revival of the bass lines that we all dearly want so bad.
Even though if it was to be remixed, Steve says he is unsure if the original multi-tracks could have been saved, cause there were about “five million edits from Lars’ drums alone“. He adds, “So if you have the box and open it up there probably be about 50 million pieces of tape all over the place.“
Adding further to the issue, he states, “They’ve lived with it this long. I’ve lived with most of the criticism, ’cause everybody assumes it’s my fault. And I guess I have to take blame cause it says my name says mixed by me and Barbiero.“
Some years down the memory lane when METALLICA would be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the band invited and flew Steve out to attend the ceremony. During the event, Lars and him were hanging out together and that is when Lars would go onto ask Steve, “Hey Steve! What happened to the bass on the record?“. Steve retorted to that by saying, “Ok, I give up, I give up!“[laughs], in what definitely looks like a funny, odd and weird kind of moment the two gentlemen shared.
