Jason Newsted joined Metallica after the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton in a bus accident on September 27 1986.

Newsted auditioned to replace Burton later in 1986, and after joining helped write Metallica's upcoming double album - including the riff for the album's opening track, Blackened. In an ironic twist, however, and for reasons which are still not clear (but are definitely drummer Lars Ulrich's fault), in the final mix of the album, Newsted's bass playing was turned down to the point of being inaudible, leaving fans and critics to wonder, "Where's the bass?"

There have been numerous attempts to reconstruct or remix "And Justice for All" in the years since it was released. Some have remixed the album from available sources to add in the "missing" bass parts, with varying levels of success. Some fans have gone in a different direction, adding in an entirely new bass recording because the available recordings simply did not preserve enough of the bass sound to bring it back by remixing alone. But some have gone even further, employing ... alternative instrumentation to bring in that big low end.