“I played him Metallica as an example of what I thought was wrong”: How Rick Rubin shaped the sound of Slayer’s classic Reign in Blood record by ignoring heavy metal norms
The 1986 record was the first metal album Rubin produced – and he singled out one of the genre's biggest names when highlighting what he thought shouldn't be done in the studio
Across his career, Rick Rubin has had a hand in a broad array of genres, from funk with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and fully fledged electric guitar rock with Aerosmith, all the way to hip hop with Beastie Boys and LL Cool J.
He’s also been involved in the world of metal, having first embarked on an exploration of the genre when he linked up with Slayer to produce their third studio album, Reign in Blood, in 1986.
Speaking in a new interview with Rick Beato, Rubin reflected on the experience, and recalled how he singled out one of the genre’s biggest names as an example of what he thought shouldn’t be done when he set about producing his first metal album.
“The first record I made in California was Slayer's first album,” he begins [at approx. 43.18]. “I asked [engineer and regular collaborator, Andy Wallace] if he wanted to engineer the record.
“He came to where I was living, which was on Broadway in this weird loft. I remember Andy came over, and I played him a few different records – AC/DC, Metallica – and I had a theory.
“Now, this is not based on being a musician, this is based on being a fan: when I hear very fast music like Metallica – and the sounds are big – the whole thing gets blurry, and you can't really hear it.
“If the sounds are big, there's not enough space for those big sounds to live next to each other, right? There's no punctuation. It just becomes a blur. I played him a Metallica record as an example of what I thought was wrong.”
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Rubin took issue with the tempo of ’Tallica’s tracks, which he believed were simply too fast. What the band gained in speed, they supposedly lost in clarity. As such, he asked Wallace whether there'd be a way to bring a similar level of intensity at differing tempos to produce a more defined metal sound.
“I said, ‘Would it be possible to record in such a way that was hard sounding, but everything was short?’ Because I didn't want it to be a blur of bass,” he admits. “I wanted it to be a pulse. He said, ‘I think we can do that.’”
The result was what has now become widely regarded as a quintessential thrash metal record, and a certified classic of the wider metal genre.
From Rubin’s perspective, his inexperience with metal actually turned out to be a benefit when it came to producing Reign in Blood, and this – paired with his decision to ignore popular metal norms – ended up shaping the overall sound of Kerry King and co's record.
“Not having the experience of the right way to do it was part of the key,” Rubin reflects. “If I was an experienced heavy metal producer, I would use the tricks that I'd used on other heavy metal records, because that's what people do.
“You learn other ways to do it. I didn't have the baggage of what the old way of doing it was.”
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
