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 LightningMaster 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.

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Max is managing editor of Gear Gods.