Flemmingback Friday: How about Some Metallica Production History?

Our overlords in blog recently ran a bunch of articles about the 30th anniversary of Ride the Lightning. Maybe you thought – well Gear Gods, what’s your contribution to this project? Well on this sludgy Friday afternoon, we’ve got some Metallica history for you!

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As many of you know, or have opinions about, Flemming Rasmussen engineered and produced the three Metallica albums, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, and …And Justice for All. What many of you may not know, however, is that Flemming has scanned and preserved a bunch of production notes and photographs to his website from the sessions for Master of Puppets (tracked at Sweet Silence Studios beginning in September 1985) and And Justice for All (tracked at One on One Studios beginning in February 1988). Pretty unreal stuff. I’ve attached some highlights below:

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Flemming editing tape on One on One’s Studer A800, during the Justice sessions.

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Guitar EQ notes for “Battery”

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Drum EQ notes for “The Thing that Should Not Be” – do any engineers write this stuff down anymore?

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Guitar Amp Settings for Kirk’s tracks on “The Prince”

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An Amp Rack used on And Justice For All

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The Control Room at One on One Studios

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Drum Mic Set-up for And Justice for All

Flemming also recently visited the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, where he dished some dirt about how he came to meet Metallica, how they operated in the studio, and what it was like back in the 80’s:

Additional source: SOS‘s great interview with Flemming about And Justice for All.

Written by

Max is managing editor of Gear Gods.

Latest comments
  • Amazing info! thanks!

  • I wish Metallica would come to their senses and work with Flemming again for the next album.

    • It’s too late to right the wrongs of the last 25-years.

      • True, but they can still write a really kickass album and go out on a high note.

    • Bob Rock ruined Metallica. Of course, Metallica went along with it. But damn it Bob Rock. You suck.

      • You are so wrong. It was Bob Rock that made them what they are today.It was there biggest selling album

    • i need a 5 pack of 7 string slinkies how do i order tHem from You thx lol

  • It’d be nice if he had …AJFA with the bass tracks.

    • Instead of releasing a new shit album, they should do that instead.

  • Whenever I’m recording a band I write this type of information down. This is some neat stuff.

    • Same, only an engineer could appreciate that. I took a screenshot of them so next time I track a metal band on an SSL I can experiment! haha

      • I thought about doing the exact same thing haha

  • Useless 2″ tape and EQ crap. Pointless to even show the public, since there are about twenty other factors to consider when recording. Even simple room acoustics can change everything.

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