Metallica - Death Magnetic

[impetus]

The new album has had a tough release.

A lot of fans are disappointed with the audio quality. It's so artificially loud that a lot of the detail is 'clipped', that is, the peaks are flattened out by the amplification. (Some of you may recall the 'Loudness War" topic on these forums awhile back. Same thing.)

Reportedly, the Guitar Hero version of these tracks are vastly superior, not being subject to the same mixing and production.

http://www.metalsucks.net/?p=7485
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/doe ... licas.html


In another unrelated snafu, Best Buy reneged on their promise to bundle the Guitar Hero version of the album with pre-orders (specifically citing that they were free with any version of the album, while supplies last). From what I can see Googling across the web, all purchasers of the Regular CD version received only the CD - no download codes or bonus disc or anything.
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread ... 079&page=4

[melancholy]

Yeah, Best Buy does have a special edition version with the Guitar Hero downloads, but it's $40, which is crazy expensive. That's a $25 markup from the normal version.

And though I haven't listened to the CD, I kinda want to buy it just for the cover art. I don't like Metallica at all and will never listen to the CD, but that cover art is really good.

[Luriden]

It's decent. I've never been a Metallica fan, but this album has just enough of a modern sound along with their oldschool sound to keep me interested.

[Stormwatch]

Downloaded, listened, hated. The mastering is atrocious, but the songs are badly composed in the first place. There's nothing enticing about them. It's even hard to notice there are any choruses at all. With all the noise, it's just boring.

[not just souLLy now]

It's clipping every second of every song, the constant clicking noises particularly on the drums make this almost unlistenable. The CD sounds like a shitty webrip.

[Stormwatch]

[S. Thompson]

Terrible mastering job. It's probably worse than Californicationwas in that aspect.

I like both albums though. Death Magnetic is far better than St. Anger and, while it's no where near the quality of albums like Ride The Lightning or Master of Puppets, it's a fair return to form for the band.

- Fuzmeister

[Stormwatch]

And here a comparison: CD version vs. downloadable from Guitar Hero III.



What a difference. It's even... listenable! (still nothing great tho)

The irony: what you can pirate is better than what you can buy!

[melancholy]

WTF?

How is that even listenable?

[Specially Cork]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I

Watch in high quality for a more obvious difference.

[S. Thompson]

WTF?

How is that even listenable?

I can't comprehend how any intelligent audio-related professional would EVER let anything like this pass for a final release. RIDICULOUS.

- Fuzmeister

[not just souLLy now]

WTF?

How is that even listenable?

I can't comprehend how any intelligent audio-related professional would EVER let anything like this pass for a final release. RIDICULOUS.

- Fuzmeister

The guy behind the mastering said it was like that when it got to him, looks like it might be the handiwork of Rick Rubin; who incidentally produced Californication too...

[Christuserloeser]

The guy behind the mastering said it was like that when it got to him

Yeah, right.

[Eviltaco64X]

I listened to around half of the first track.
I definitely noticed the bad audio quality.

I'm pretty sure that they will rerelease the CD with the Guitar Hero songs soon.

[gRiMgRaVy014]

The drums are too loud.

[mrandyk]

I like it, its probably their best work since the Black album. It is definitly much better than I expected. After hearing it I am definitly stoked to go see them perform in a couple months.

[Stormwatch]

Another comparison pic here.

[Kevin Beckman]

I'm gonna pick this up on vynil.

[Stormwatch]

I doubt the vynil will sound any better.

[MulletMan13]

LOL that's comical that they did that.

Hrmm... Californication was one of my favorite albums of all time-- was there ever a version released that wasn't complete rubbish?