"Metallica’s crunch sound is often cleaner than people expect. [...] Don’t get me wrong, distortion is great, but there’s definitely a point where having too much turns your tone to mush. The low end loses its tightness and your overall tone gets flabby, with no definition or cut. When you’re first starting out, there’s always the temptation to hide behind distortion because it lets you get away with murder. But, when it comes to rhythm work, you’ve gotta back off that gain control a bit, especially if you’re playing with another guitarist. Actually, over the years, James and I have found that besides giving our tone more definition and cut, backing off the gain makes us play our riffs better because we can’t get away with being sloppy."