In 1988, when Metallica was finally a top ten band that was headlining arenas, Bob Rock wanted to see what all the fuss was about. We had a chance to catch up with Rock to talk about how he helped bring all the right elements together to create a modern metal masterpiece that still stands strong today. Simply put by Lars Ulrich to writer Craig Rosen, "We felt we still had our best record in us, and Bob Rock could help us make it." I think the only rule was we weren’t going to compromise until we all liked it." I brought my skill set and my view of things, but it was completely all of us. I just helped them make the album they wanted to make, that’s all I did. None of this stuff is conscious, there was no concept, except we agreed on the sonics. "It’s a process, and you arrive at that place. "There was no, ‘This is what we’re going for,’" Rock explains. Still, Rock insists there was never any discussion about going for more radio or MTV play or crossing over to a bigger audience. If they wanted to make a more commercial album that was going to reach more people, the Black album was the way to do it. The band had gone as far as they could with the ultra-technical, ultra-long songs they crafted for Justice, and wanted to move in a simpler, more stripped-down direction. Rock also came along at a time when Metallica needed a change. While Rock certainly raised eyebrows among Metallica fans, having previously engineered commercial hard rock fare like Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, he would prove to be the best "outside the box" choice the band could have made. The band’s three previous albums were produced by Fleming Rasmussen. ![]() With the Black album, Metallica stepped out of their comfort zone and went with a new producer named Bob Rock. And Justice for All, Metallica broke the top ten, before finally hitting the number one spot with the Black album, which topped the charts for a month and would eventually go on to sell 16 million copies. The band had built their career gradually, breaking out of the underground with Master of Puppets in 1986.
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