“We were kind of forced to come up with a solution for playing a show in Antarctica where we couldn’t have speakers”: Why did the world’s biggest metal band switch to amp modelers?

Besides long hair and leather jackets, nothing is more tied to heavy metal’s image than a wall of Marshall stacks. Kiss, Judas Priest, Metallica – and everyone in between – adopted the prop at some point, using it to symbolize what heavy metal stands for.

It’s uncompromisingly loud, searingly hot and literally heavy. In many ways, a Marshall stack is the physical incarnation of the genre.

Now, as heavy metal enters its sixth decade, modelers are exposing half-stacks and 2x12s as cumbersome relics. Unlike a guitar, wielding one won’t get you any chicks (or dudes), but 25 years ago, the idea of a pro showing up to a gig with anything else was questionable at best.

At the time, internet forums taught this budding guitarist that if your combo amp went to “Insane” instead of 11, then your amp situation was about as un-serious as it could get. But just as computers moved from spare rooms to pockets, companies like Fractal Audio Systems pushed amp modeling out of bedrooms and onto the big stage.

Take Metallica. They once sang about Marshall noise piercing ears, kicking asses and kicking faces on Kill ’Em All, only to adopt Fractal Audio’s Axe-Fx in 2013. Now their tube amps stay home at HQ, leaving fewer variables for James Hetfield’s tech, Chad Zaemisch, to wrangle on the road. In this interview, Zaemisch talks about the switch, the early challenges and why Metallica hasn’t looked back at all.

What brought modelers to the table for Metallica?

We were kind of forced to come up with a solution for playing a show in Antarctica where we couldn't have speakers. We couldn't be loud. For environmental reasons, they didn’t want any noise pollution. We had a lot of help right off the bat.

Matt Picone from Fractal came and got all our sounds started. It was definitely a learning curve for us and the band, but once we got through that, everybody started to look at how convenient it was.

Was there apprehension in making the switch?

Yeah. I mean, the initial question is, can we make this work? Fortunately, the people at Fractal were very quick about making fixes and changes. From a technician’s point of view, you don't want to say to the guy you’re working for that what you’re doing is not going to be as good as before.

As you see the freedom that this gives you and the other guys in your role, do you have to convince the bosses that these modelers are what you should use moving forward?

Metallica is great to work for because they like to look forward. James wants to know all of the different ups and downs of things and, you know, he can play through whatever he wants. The fact that he chose to kind of say, “Well, maybe we’re the ones to embrace this and to use it to its fullest extent,” I really had to hand it to him because we [Metallica’s crew] were excited to use this stuff. The analog routing on the old rigs was just maniacal.

Then the people in set design realized that if we don’t have this wall of speakers anymore, we have all of these other things available to us. Everybody’s all about content these days, and not a lot of people want to watch a band stand in front of their amp line with nothing else going on. Now we can use large video screens. It opens up a lot more opportunities to do different things.

Metallica - Freeze 'Em All: Live in Antarctica (FULL CONCERT) [HD] - YouTube

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From the tech point of view, I always really liked being able to plug my computer into equipment, manipulate it, and have a visual. When you're coming up with these amp sounds, it forces you to look at why things are the way they are.

Why is the tone stack in a different position in the signal chain? If I want to change the output tube sound and see what that sounds like, I don’t have to grab hot tubes to do it! I just hit the pull-down menu and have a listen.

It's a little bit like back in the day when your tour manager got a cell phone and a computer to do business. It makes a lot more sense. We don’t have to pull the bus over because he’s got to use the pay phone to call ahead to the next place. Now, we send emails.

Still, what should a new guitarist grab on their first trip to the music store?

A small amp that they can use in their room just to hear their guitar. Maybe they push the gain button. They don’t need to get lost in the minutiae – they should just concentrate on learning songs and having fun.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.