Metallica

People hyping Jason's playing over Rob's will never not be funny to me. No, he didn't have some magical ability to fit in with the band's sound better. You could make that argument with Cliff, but not with Jason. He's an unremarkable bassist with a consistently poor tone because he is way too heavy-handed with his picking and it makes the strings sound like shit.

Rob runs rings around him, both with regards to raw technical ability and the basslines themselves - he executes Cliff's basslines in his own style, with precision while Jason just sort of plays whatever the guitars are doing with minor alterations. His best performances are on Load and ReLoad, where (by his own admission) his basslines were always worked on and mulled over by Bob Rock, Hetfield and Ulrich. He's not bad, per se, but he isn't in any way special and Rob is better in just about every way when it comes to bass playing, the actual thing he was hired to do.

Re: looseness, it's a pretty baseless comparison to make since Rob is dealing with Lars's completely indescribable approach to tempo, while Jason is playing to a pretty consistent one. I guarantee you the string noise his picking makes would be unbearable too if he was playing with Lars of today.
 
Edington said:
Sarky bastard. Maiden's shows can't be cheap to produce and they don't make you pay through the nose for tickets.
Click to expand...
Cost to produce is largely irrelevant to ticket prices. Metallica's core fan base is now in their 40s and 50s and willing/able to pay more. It's supply and demand, people.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Cost to produce is largely irrelevant to ticket prices. Metallica's core fan base is now in their 40s and 50s and willing/able to pay more. It's supply and demand, people.
Click to expand...
I don't have any industry facts to verify this but I will say that I saw both Aerosmith and Sabbath last year for £90 each and both had dick all stage show, just big screens. That's £20-25 more than Maiden.
2016/7 was an eye opener for me in terms of ticket prices for arena and stadium shows. I was disgusted at the prices, by Jove, I was livid but now I just accept it for what it is. A can of coke is £1.20 in my town, for fuck sake. 5p crisps are a thing of the past. Penny chews? Forget about it.
To me, though, Metallica stand out as a bigger bunch of cunts because of that interview with their manager when he said that they put prices up just to see what they could get away with. Makes them a tad less likeable, more cutthroat, even though they aren't the only ones charging those prices. And Puppets isn't any less good because of it.
And I know we salute Maiden for keeping ticket prices relatively low but they do have a few more revenue streams than most other bands. Keeps us ticket buyers sweet. Good management.
 
Ruflux said:
People hyping Jason's playing over Rob's will never not be funny to me. No, he didn't have some magical ability to fit in with the band's sound better. You could make that argument with Cliff, but not with Jason. He's an unremarkable bassist with a consistently poor tone because he is way too heavy-handed with his picking and it makes the strings sound like shit.

Rob runs rings around him, both with regards to raw technical ability and the basslines themselves - he executes Cliff's basslines in his own style, with precision while Jason just sort of plays whatever the guitars are doing with minor alterations. His best performances are on Load and ReLoad, where (by his own admission) his basslines were always worked on and mulled over by Bob Rock, Hetfield and Ulrich. He's not bad, per se, but he isn't in any way special and Rob is better in just about every way when it comes to bass playing, the actual thing he was hired to do.

Re: looseness, it's a pretty baseless comparison to make since Rob is dealing with Lars's completely indescribable approach to tempo, while Jason is playing to a pretty consistent one. I guarantee you the string noise his picking makes would be unbearable too if he was playing with Lars of today.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

I think there's an element of metal fans of a certain age, who had a bit of a bromance about Newsted, not that there's anything wrong with that kind of thing #seinfeld, but that doesn't make Rob a worse bass player.

Plus, Lights Camera Revolution is a better album than anything Newsted played on.
 
The guy had spirit, that's the thing.
Light Camera Revolution is not better than AJFA but it is from anything else Newsted recorded, and so is the succeeding ST album where you have songs with driving basslines such as Accept My Sacrifice that really showcase Trujillo good.
 
Zare said:
The guy had spirit, that's the thing.
Light Camera Revolution is not better than AJFA but it is from anything else Newsted recorded, and so is the succeeding ST album where you have songs with driving basslines such as Accept My Sacrifice that really showcase Trujillo good.
Click to expand...

In fairness, I think Newsted is definitely a better fit in Metallica, it's just I think Rob does not deserve some of the abuse some people give him, usually for superficial reasons, the guy is a great bass player. It's not his fault Newsted is no longer in Metallica.
 
I give Rob no hate. The man is quite talented and seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I just think (as others have said) that Jason fit the band better, from playing to performance to style to overall vibe.

It's similar to the Nicko vs. Clive debate to me: both are great drummers, but Nicko fits Maiden better than Clive did.
 
Jason was perfect for the "attitude-era" of Metallica from Justice through the Black album and consequent three or four years of touring...I can't imagine anyone else doing that as well as Jason. Sometimes I look at Metallica now and thik that they could really need a high energy guy in the band again like Jason. Rob is good though and fits where Metallica are now.
 
"Please enter a valid message."
 

Attachments

  • rob.jpg
    rob.jpg
    257.3 KB · Views: 15
I love all the bonus material that they've put out on the remastered/deluxe editions of the first four albums; live gigs, demo versions, original riff tapes. I hope they can keep that going. Yes, some of those releases are expensive but if you're a fan you get value for your money!
 
SixesAlltheway said:
I love all the bonus material that they've put out on the remastered/deluxe editions of the first four albums; live gigs, demo versions, original riff tapes. I hope they can keep that going. Yes, some of those releases are expensive but if you're a fan you get value for your money!
Click to expand...
Plus, all the audio only stuff is available on streaming services so if you wanna enjoy that stuff, you don't even have to pay.

The Justice set is really cool incidentally. Lots of riff tapes and demos that have some really weird stuff going on (for example, a part of Harvester of Sorrow was both in Dyers Eve and Blackened once, before it was joined with another riff to create the final song) and the new Seattle '89 mix is a damn fine addition to the collection too. It's also neat to see and hear the origins of some of the songs (like a short recording of the Shortest Straw's intro and first bit in rough form from 1986, with Lars playing a ride to boot) along with the rough mixes of the final takes.

Oh yeah, and one more thing: it's incredibly glorious to hear Lars's footwork from the Seattle show with all the clarity of a modern recording. Funnily enough, he's actually typically sloppy here and there but it's still miles beyond what he does nowadays, even accounting for age.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top