Massive Attack released their third album, Mezzanine, on April 20, 1998, and at two years shy of 30, it’s still a beloved entry in the trip-hop archives. At the time, it earned much praise. But critics also weren’t afraid to point out its perceived flaws. Retrospectively, however, Mezzanine has benefited from the distance of years. Maybe it has something to do with the contentious atmosphere during recording, and almost three decades have softened those memories.

The recording process for Mezzanine was rife with inter-band conflict. Robert “3D” Del Naja first pitched the album idea in 1997, but the proposed turn toward a distinctly darker sound caused tensions within the group. A rift formed within the trio, as Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles disagreed with the aesthetic change. Grant “Daddy G” Marshall was on board with Del Naja’s idea, however.

This rift led to a tense process for Massive Attack, but Mezzanine still came out swinging. Several critics noted that the distinct lack of Adrian “Tricky” Thaws on the album highlighted a certain flatness in Del Naja’s vocals. But as the first album after Tricky left the group in 1995, the difference would have been glaringly obvious. Still, the album was No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart and helped lay the foundation for trip-hop.

Massive Attack’s ‘Mezzanine’ Was Hugely Influential Despite a Tense Recording Process

Mezzanine‘s creative process was so stressful that it almost caused the demise of the entire group. Already down to a trio and nearly splitting at the seams, the group hardly recorded in the same room together. Del Naja mostly worked on sample-heavy demos by himself, while Marshall and Vowles laid down drum and bass loops. Marshall was still supportive of the darker, more textured direction Del Naja was taking the project. But Vowles allegedly wouldn’t budge, remaining skeptical.

Doubt and paranoia hovered over the album like a shroud. Producer Neil Davidge described the process as “sketchy” in a 2003 interview, “because the band, as reported a lot at that time, were not getting on,” he said.

“So I’d be in the studio working with one of the members and someone else would come in, then the person I had been working with would leave, and I’d have to change the track I was working on because they didn’t want to work on that track, they wanted to work on something different,” Davidge continued. “Sometimes I’d be working on perhaps four different tracks in one day, which was a pretty messy way to work.”

Mezzanine was initially scheduled for a December 1997 release date, but the interpersonal conflicts and chaotic recording delayed it by several months. In the end, Vowles left Massive Attack shortly after the album came out, citing creative differences. But Mezzanine remains a formative album for the group, for trip-hop, and for the Bristol club scene of the 1990s.