I always associated metal with high low-end / bass, high top-end / treble, and little to no middle; the most "metal" they've ever been is in songs like "Go", "Blood" or "Leash", and especially when Dave A played drums (he was so into his hard bass and very tight snare, and so am I); so yes I do think the high treble in this song is quite metal, but the lack of bass also bothers me; the only way it's grown on me is to imagine this "thin" sound as quite 80s speed metal / thrash, or even (as I've said more than once) retro video game music; it has a certain charm that fits with the album's aesthetic, but depending on what mood I'm in, I can't help wondering what Jeff would have done on it

matt seems to be interacting with people on instagram.. somebody ask him

you may have to play an SG song on guitar to get his attention first, though

Im thinking of firing up some evacuation on my SG for him this evening. Cross your fingers fellas.

Do it.

I genuinely believe they had the bass buss muted or the fader was low when they printed the mix, and no one noticed.

You can hear it faintly in the background, which makes me think it was send to an FX channel, and we're getting a bit of that in the mix, but that the main bass channel was low or muted.

Is this their When Doves Cry? Maybe another reference with Petty, Cornell?

what is this a reference to?

Thanks for responding... The past songs you mentioned had influences of Metal but still maintained the funk/blues sound that was a staple of their first two records. Take the Long Way is the most overt metal attempt right down to the thin/high treble sound. I guess I just want the song to be more of a banger but clearly they were intending to produce a different sounding song.

When Doves Cry has no bassline.

I think you're using "metal" to mean speed or thrash metal; the earlier songs were equally metal but more groove metal, if anything