Metallica’s old producer Bob Rock: “Could stretch the boundaries”
Metallica‘s old producer Bob Rock talks about Metallica’s 90s era. He reveals some details that we don’t know yet about Metallica. Load and Reload albums have some opinions on Bob Rock’s production.
They hired Bob Rock to help Metallica transform their sound style into the stadium-friendly kind of heavy metal that would propel them to the top of thrash metal history. We also know him producing rock and metal bands such as Metallica, Motley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, The Tragically Hip, the Cult, 311, Our Lady Peace, Bryan Adams, The Offspring, Michael Bublé, Black Veil Brides, David Lee Roth, and Ron Sexsmith.
Bob Rock produced Metallica‘s self-titled “Black” album and out in 1990. He produced Load (1996), ReLoad (1997), the new material for the band’s cover album, Garage Inc. (1998), and St. Anger (2000). (2003).
Metallica collaborated with producer Bob Rock for two albums that would define the band’s second half of the 90s.
Load, published in 1996, and Reload, released in 1997, saw the Four Horsemen push out more than ever before, with many fans enjoying epics like Bleeding Me and The Outlow Torn, while others were frightened by their forays into country, alt-rock, and grunge.
During a fresh interview with Metal Hammer, Metallica’s old producer Bob Rock what he thinks about the Load and Reload era of the band:
“One of the most admirable things about the band is they really don’t think in terms of people’s reactions. They just do what they feel is right for them. They [Metallica] don’t take into account what people think. When they go in a direction and they make a commitment to doing something, they just do it. And they don’t hold back. Felt a certain amount of wanting to stretch out.
“I just think they just saw that culture was changing. And the rules of metal are very confining. The drum sound has to be a certain way, you can’t do harmonies. I mean, that’s just no fun. There was no conceptual decision that they would go somewhere different. It freed them up from concentrating on what made them who they are. They realised that they could stretch the boundaries and that’s what Load and Reload was.”
Previously, Bob Rock talks to Louder Sound about his mix with Metallica albums:
“I didn’t really think of it in that way, necessarily. At the time, I was just looking out for the next best job opportunity that might come my way. I knew of Metallica, obviously. But they weren’t a band I was in awe of. I didn’t understand the sonics of …And Justice For All. Because when I saw them live they were a heavy, weighty band and that record just doesn’t sound that way.
That’s not a criticism, I know that to some people …Justice is the standard of what Metallica should sound like, but that was my observation from an outside perspective at that time, when the idea of working with Metallica wasn’t ever a thought in my head.
They [Metallica] seemed just like regular guys. But they had a cassette of demos with them and so I heard Sad But True and …Sandman in their basic forms and straightaway I was like, ‘Oh, I could do this.’ In my head, it felt different to what I’d heard before from them, and they told me that they wanted to do something different. They wanted a change.”
Watch Metallica‘s “The Making of Load” documentary below!
