Metallica won't remix '...And Justice For All' for 30th anniversary

February 23, 2018

[Photo by: Herring & Herring]

It looks like there won't be any justice for …And Justice For All's sound quality. As Metallica's back catalog gets remastered and reissued, the band are apparently uninterested in remixing their watershed 1988 album, which fans have long claimed lacks much audible bass guitar.

Original mix engineer Steve Thompson says the band “have no desire to re-mix the record,” despite Justice For All's sound issues being a source of debate among the group's fans for years. (James Hetfield himself once told The Red Bulletin it “could use a little more low end.”) Producer Flemming Rasmussen seemingly apologized for the album's dearth of deep tones last year—regardless, as Thompson states on Talk Toomey: The Metal Nexus Podcast, an upcoming 30th anniversary reissue won't be remixed:

“I just contributed to the anniversary album,” he says. “I just sent them a bunch of pictures and some outtakes, but they have no desire to re-mix the record. They want to keep it the way it is. They might remaster it or something like that, but there is only so much mastering you can do. And I'll tell you the truth, I don't even know if those original multitracks could be saved. Because there are like 5 million edits in them from Lars' drums alone. So if you have the box and open it up there probably be about 50 million pieces of tape all over the place.”

Metallica recently reissued their early covers EP, The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited, which is also remastered but not remixed. Per the band's directives, it seems the classic mixes of Metallica's work is here to stay.