This is what Metallica’s One sounds like with every single part played on bass

There’s been longstanding discussion about what Metallica’s …And Justice for All album would sound like if the bass guitar parts were actually audible on the recording.

Now YouTuber Mark Grocki is kind enough to show us how the album’s most famous song, One, would sound if it featured only bass.

In the video above, Grocki tackles James Hetfield’s and Kirk Hammett’s guitar parts - including the distorted chorus riffs and shredding, tapping-infused solos - as well as Hetfield’s vocals, on four-string (with a little help from Lars’ original drum track).

And while the results are impressive, we’re not sure Hetfield would approve.

“There are things I would like to change on some of the records,” he said in 2017, “but it gives them so much character that you can’t change them. I find it a little frustrating when bands re-record classic albums with pretty much the same songs and have it replace the original. It erases that piece of history.

“OK, so …And Justice for All could use a little more low end and St. Anger could use a little less tin snare drum, but those things are what make those records part of our history.”

For more information on Mark Grocki, who has also tackled bass versions of the solos to Megadeth’s Holy Wars… The Punishment Due and Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine, check out his official YouTube channel.

Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.