Here we go again. Metallica appear to be following in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ footsteps, releasing an album that’s so compressed it’s painful to listen to. And that’s painful in a “shit sound” way, not a “woo! Scary metal!” way.
the released CD version is – to coin a technical phrase – smashed to f**k.
According to the mastering engineer, responding to Metallica fans:
I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice it to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else.
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0 responses to “Metallica: too loud, and not in a good way”
So they’ve got a technical excuse for being shit this time.
To be honest, I was rather surprised when I listened to Metallica’s new album “Death Magnetic” last Friday. Compared with their last album, “St. Anger”, the new album sounds way better. I mean, “St. Anger” sounded more like a crappy demo than like a hit-album. “Death Magnetic” sounds more like their “…And Justice For All” release. Nonetheless, I am a bit disappointed with their songwriting. The new songs are not as classy as they used to be. Some parts are simply taken from way to far away. Meaning, they simply don’t fit into the song. Of course that is subjective, and musicians evolve over the years. I don’t expect Metallica to sound like 15 years ago. But from a musician’s and producer’s point of view, their material got worse. If they were not Metallica, I wouldn’t get the album. But because they are who they are, I got “Death Magnetic” and analyze the hell out of the record.
After all this, I think I might have to download it and check it out.
you people can not seriously call yourself metal fans Death Magnetic ROCKS!!! remember Kill Em All tough as nails this is almost as good and definently as hard nobody does it better.
> you people can not seriously call yourself metal fans
OK, then.