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Why the hell doesn’t Metallica<\/a><\/strong>‘s 1988 album \u2026And Justice For All<\/em> have any audible bass? Then-bassist Jason Newsted<\/strong> recorded his parts for the record, yet they’re completely inaudible in the final mix. James Hetfield<\/strong> has blamed burnout in the past<\/a>, while one of the album’s mixers Steve Thompson<\/strong> thought it might be a joke<\/a>. Regardless, Newsted<\/strong> was understandably pissed off<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now \u2026And Justice For All<\/em> producer Flemming Rasmussen<\/strong> has a new theory about the absent bass. In an interview with Daniel Sarkissian<\/strong>, Rasmussen<\/strong> said he believes Metallica<\/a><\/strong> originally did it to get a reaction out of Newsted<\/strong>. And when Newsted<\/strong> didn’t react during the mixing process, the bass stayed muted.<\/p>\n “I think \u2014 but this is purely speculation \u2014 I think that they did it to get some kind of reaction from Jason. Because what they hated the most about Jason was that he was a fan,” said Rasmussen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “He was never disagreeing or anything, or stating his own opinion. I think they were waiting for him to kind of state his place in the band\u2026 I think they probably did it to get a reaction, and when it didn’t come, that was the way the album turned out.”<\/p>\n And while this might seem mean, Metallica<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> was also dealing with Cliff Burton<\/strong> having died less than two years prior in a horrific bus accident. So it’s impossible to say where their collective heads were at while dealing with that kind of grief. Despite that situation, Newsted<\/strong> stayed in Metallica<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> until 2001. Now if we could just get a remixed version of \u2026And Justice For All<\/em> with all that beefy Newsted<\/strong> goodness, that’d be great.<\/p>\n \n