Metal Reviews

Rick Rubin is an absolute shit producer. I can't think of one thing he really improved that wouldn't have been better anyway. Not only that but Rick is a known thief and plagurist. "The Hunter" for example, was not written by Glenn Danzig / Rick Rubin, it was credited that way to make rick some money.

When a group agrees to hire rick rubin they are actually making the statement that they are so confident in their material that Rick Rubin can't ruin it.

The only album I can think of that Rick might have had a positive impact on was Danzig's first album, after that rick barely if at all showed up for the other Danzig albums he is credited for. Besides that, Glenn prodcued that album more than Rick.

Rick Rubin absolutely ruined Slipknot's 3rd (or 4th) album.

Rubin is one of those pompous assholes who has no background, knowledge or skill in musical production, but because the guy has money and co-owned a record company he thought he was competant enough to produce albums. This is not the case. While i'm on the subject if you are planning on recording anything of a serious nature (not a rough demo) hire a fucking engineer, they are better than you at sound. It's like trying to get johnny ramone to re-record Images and Words and do just as good as JP.

Anyway. I knew RR's influence on the album would only make it consistent. I was sure metallica would bring the goods, but why trust a man with a horrible track record? The good news for us is that rick is so hands off and Lars and Jams CAN produce and engineer a decent sounding album that rubin really couldn't do much to destroy it.

If you don't like the mastering, blame Warner Bros, because if you know what you're talking about they will demand nothing less than the loudest possible mastering. They will refuse to release the album until that concession is met. If you don't believe that, then name one album to be released by any record company that doesn't "replay gain" at below 4db. The only album I can think of is Lord's new album which is available in "full fidelity" (as a cd-r with no artwork) at their website.

I don't really think you can say that a producer is bad because you don't really know what he did/didn't do on the album. The influence isn't quantifiable...he might have had a lot of direction from the band as to how they want the record to sound. Plus, you said Rubin's so hands-off, so how can he really mess shit up that much?

That being said, maybe he does suck.

It is easy to know what a producer does.

A producer is the liason between the record company and the artist. The producer gives the record company the result they desire. Producers do not work for the band. As such, a lot of the time, the producer is selected by the record company.

In Rubin's case, He IS the record company on the majority of his work. He directs the production and if the band or artist goes another direction he will simply tell them to do it his way or they will be in breach of contract, either with American Def Jam or whatever company employs him.

Rubin may be hands off in that he stops by every week or so, but he firmly makes his position known and enforces his wishes upon the artist.

With this album his power is very diminished and he may have even had a friendly demeanor, but the past has shown rick makes bad decisions and insists he is right. Metallica record for E/M ventures which they are part owners, so he is working for Metallica and Elektra jointly. Unfortunatley in the eyes of those who are not interested in music for its own sake, he is a success. Thats bad news for those of us who want the best recording possible.

For instance, Rick is known for his refusal to record digitally or mix digitally. The man hates digitial. This is why his albums sound terrible. Analog is not as forgiving as digital for an amateur like Rick Rubin to record with. The man doesn't understand simple concepts such as oxidation of analog tape that wind up ruining is work.

Quit your blathering. He has an excellent resume.

Troll.

Excellent resume such as?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin

If you scroll down a bit, there's a listing of albums he's produced. Not sure if I'd call it an excellent resume, but there are three classic Slayer albums in there.

Maybe the problem was, that Rubin wasn't exactly the producer but more a mentor. In the mission metallica clips you could see Lars with a technician when they put the pieces together on the PC. Maybe there is the error source...

Rick Rubin's awesome. He produced De-loused In The Comatorium and that's good enough for me.

Hmmmm, lots of those really loud albums in there....ie slipknot, red hot chili peppers, system of a down...

Lets just concentrate on the CLASSIC albums he's produced

Beastie Boys - Licence to Ill
Slayer - Reign In Blood/South Of Heaven/Seasons in the Abyss
Danzig - 1, 2 & 3.
Trouble - Trouble
RHCP - Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic / Californication
System of A Down - Toxicity
The Mars Volta - De-Loused In the Comatorium

Those are just some of the nigh on legendary albums he's been involved in. Either brilliant or just massively successful. And doesn't include the dozens of other just 'really good' albums he's produced or the fact that he's credited with almost single handedly rejuvenating Johnny Cash's career.

I don't even care if you don't like all those bands (I don't) or albums or not. Ranting and raving as though he's the anti christ and ignoring the wealth of great material he has been associated with is reknobulous.

For what it's worth, I find the production on Deloused horrible.

The Slayer and Danzig albums have great production, though they don'y suffer from the same 'loudness' problem that Death Magnetic has.

Those were the days!

Yeah, but Rick had little to do with the sound of those albums directly. Its more that the process he insists on is flawed and even more so now that albums are at least 6 decibels too loud.

But yeah, it has really made me pursue older stuff knowing that the production will be phenominal compared to anything that comes out today.

But some recent stuff has sounded amazing. Anything Lord Tim Produces is amazing. Timo Tolkki is an amazing producer.

The problem is that the Ynwgie Malmsteens of the world that can not produce their own stuff do a horrible job.

Rick has never helped himself and gotten the techincal help he's needed. Luckily, Lars and James have more techincal knowledge of sound than Rick and what Metallica says, goes.

+1, though I don't consider myself a production expert the faults in DM do become obvious when you crank up the volume.

Those RHCP and SOAD albums (the only ones i've heard) have nothing special in their sound...... They're just loud.....

They'd be "CLASSIC" even without Rubin.

Right, so its just a massive coincidence that those bands had a major spike in quality when he was their producer.

I believe that Rick Rubin is responsible for this improved effort.

Producers can have a large influence on the band, they tell them what sounds good and what doesn't. They push them to new heights and better directions, and hopefully make the appropriate 'constructive' comments to get them there. They are the sounding board. In some cases (i.e. Mutt Lang), they actually do contribute to the creative process.

When you get a producer that tells the band everything sounds great when it's a piece of crap, you get things like St. Anger. When you get an involved producer who knows how to squeeze every last drop, you get things like Pyromania and South of Heaven.

massive spike in quality? Toxicity was a massive step down in quality.

Well, commercial quality at least. The SOAD debut was kickass, but still relatively underground album. With Toxicity they started writing songs and got big, even if it took steps towards Nu Metal and wasn't as good as the s/t.