Who was Metallica's best bassist and why?

hell no.......... think twas jason......wat i heard ...is wat i praise....he was a hell bender!!!

Cliff Burton don t know anyone who can play like that he was the best. R.I.P

Whoever says whatever, the Bass guru is Cliff Burton, a true inspiration for the metal bassist of alltime. I miss his style in today's metal songs...

I think this is a no brainer question. Cliff Burton is still considered the best bassist of metallica, even though he had passed away long back. he had alot of talent...etc which was untimely cut short. This is not to put down the other two bassits. but clive is my personal fav

Easily Cliff Burton for me as well. He helped Metallica though so much in those first records with his influence and he even taught James about harmony and probably some theory. His influence on Metallica can't be denied and he was probably the most important person in their early days. The reason he's better then Jason is because Cliff contributed quite a bit to the songs, I believe Jason didn't have over 4 credits on all of the albums that he worked on. I won't judge Trujillo yet just because I'm not sure what hes contributed to the writing on this new record but I like his vibe and energy when he plays live.

jason newstad he was the best... i mean cliff was good but i like better jason and i have nothing to say on trujillo he is just... bad

No question it's Cliff Burton. He brought the majority of the creativity to the band, and was the only one who really knew theory and composing during the early years. You can tell what he brought to the band during the early years. Justice was OK, and Black was pretty good, but nothing released touches Ride the Lightning, or the close second, Master of Puppets. It's like Randy Rhoads, you just have to wonder what they would be doing now, although no offense to Burton, I don't think he was in the same league as Randy.