“They said, ‘Why would you do that?’”: How Bob Rock’s production approach on The Black Album differed to Flemming Rasmussen’s on previous Metallica recordsWhen Bob Rock took over the reigns of Metallica’s production on 1991’s The Black Album, it was a match made in heaven. However, while the record has gone down in history as one of the biggest selling records of all time, the band were initially confused by the producer’s approach.
When Rock was enlisted to work with Metallica, he entered the thrash metal camp with a different approach to previous producer Flemming Rasmussen. “I don’t follow the rules of metal, which is probably wrong, and I’m sorry,” the producer admits on the latest episode of The Metallica Report. “Because, really, my relationship with Metallica is that I’m a song person, and so it doesn’t matter however you style it.”

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Instead of playing into thrash metal cliché, Rock was eager to help Metallica evolve. While Rasmussen had shaped Metallica’s rise with a trio of killer records (1984’s Ride The Lightning, 1986’s Master Of Puppets and 1988’s …And Justice For All), Rock believed the band’s self-titled 1991 record should sound and feel more live than their previous efforts.
“When I first met them, they told me how they record,” Rock recalls. “Basically, what they knew was how [Rasmussen] put together a record… And I told them, ‘I don’t do that. I record everything live.’”

While the idea of recording live feels self-explanatory – capturing the raw, chaotic energy of thrash metal – Metallica were initially dubious about Rock’s process. “They said, ‘Why would you do that?’” he says. “I said, ‘well, the way [Rasmussen] did it, it’s very mechanical… And you don’t really realise what the whole song is until you finish it. But when you record live, you get a good example of pretty much all the parts.”
As a case in point, Rock notes former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted’s playing style. “Jason wasn’t playing bass like a bass player,” he remembers noticing. “He was just doubling the guitar. So I taught him, like, ‘Dude, be a bass player’… that would’ve never happened if you just did it to a click track, separately recording all the guitars.”

After proving his worth on The Black Album, Metallica would further “embrace” Rock’s process on the following 1996 and 1997 Load and Reload records – ignoring the “rules of metal” and simply penning tracks that inspired them. “I wasn’t the guy that said, ‘No, we’ve gotta copy The Black Album,” Rock says. “I was glad we weren’t copying The Black Album, ’cause you can’t make The Black Album again.”
Initially intended as a double record, Load and Reload would eventually be split into two, with Reload being produced a year later in New York. The shift in location was initially a bid to regain focus in the midst of Metallica’s busy personal lives, but it inadvertently aided the records’ experimental feel.
“We had to get out of town because they all just started having kids!” Rock notes. “They married and stuff, and nothing was getting done. So I said, ‘We’ve gotta get out of here.’ We picked New York, and, in New York, it kind of changed,” he explains. “They started experimenting.”

The production was also significantly different, due to the mixing consoles at Rock’s disposal. “When we were in New York, they didn’t have the console that we used before, the [Solid State Logic] 6000,” he explains. “All the studios that were available had an SSL 9000. It’s a different ball of wax.”
Unfortunately for Rock, he wasn’t a huge fan of the SSL 9000 – and neither was recording engineer Randy Staub. “We fucking hated it,” he recalls. “It kept breaking down… I’m not gonna get into it, but it’s an acquired taste. It’s not what I do, but that’s what we had to finish it with.”
Rock goes on to note that, as a result, Load and Reload are “completely sonically different” records. The SSL 9000 resulted in a far more “aggressive” feel on 1997’s Reload. “To me, it was really apparent that the records were so different,” he adds.
Sometimes, Rock does admit that he wishes he could go back and toy with the records once more. “So I’d like to re-mix Load… but that’s never gonna happen,” he laughs.
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