This seems to jibe with testimonies by Thompson, who told Ultimate Guitar in 2015 (partially archived here) that Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was adamant about turning down the bass in his drums and in the overall mix. What's incredible is that, according to Thompson, Ulrich asked him about the mix when the two of them were flying out to Metallica's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.What happened was [mixing engineers Steve Thompson and Mike Barbiero] did a mix that they thought sounded really, really good, which had lots of bass in it. … But, [the rest of the band] heard the mix and they went, 'Alright, take the bass down, change this this this and this, and then take the bass down.' So you can barely hear it. And then once they've done that they said, 'Take it another 3dB down.' Why they did that—I have no idea! It could be that they were still grieving about Cliff. I have no idea. But imagine my surprise when I heard the album.
Funnily enough, then-bassist Jason Newsted isn't extremely vexed about what essentially amounted to a hazing from Ulrich and Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield, as he's still proud of the music he contributed to. He told Loudwire in 2013 that a fan gave him a fan-edited, bass-heavy version of the album called "…And Justice for Jason," which he thought was neat. The moral of the story is to never let musicians take over in mixing, unless they have experience. Also, the mixing process is the furthest thing from a game. You can listen to "…And Justice for Jason" below because metal bassists deserve props, goddammit.Phil is a fan of all uniquely flawed works. He's on Twitter."They flew us out and I'm sitting with Lars," explained Thompson. "He goes, 'Hey, what happened to the bass in …Justice?' He actually asked me that. I wanted to cold cock him right there. It was a shame because I'm the one getting the shit for the lack of bass."