Metallica - Death Magnetic

Been listening to it in the car for 2 weeks..since the day it came out. I love it..great album. Gene
 
Picked it up earlier this week, and after about 3 or 4 times throught, I can honestly say that I'm impressed. Thank God for this album. After the last 12 years or more, I was pretty sure we would never again see good heavy music from these guys, and I'm glad I was wrong.:thumbup:

Somewhere up in my attic, I still have a weathered old Levi's denim jacket with a huge metallica patch across the back from around 1985 or so:D
 
dano said:
Who ever engineered it should be strung-up. From a sound stand-point, it sounds HORRIBLE. Probably one of the worst SOUNDING CD's I've heard in a long time.

I don't care too much for the material, but it's unlistenable, due to the crappy engineering of it.
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A lot of people are complaining that the CD is way too loud and very compressed on the bottom end like they used to do back in thebad old Dolby days of the 70's so that you got a loud, midrangey sound suitable for bad car radios. Like hitting the "loudness" button on your old receiver. The also say that the songs as mastered for Guitar Hero sound MUCH better. I have the CD but it is in my car. I'm probably going to buy the 33 1/3 LP. The 5 disc MFSL 45 rpm set would be cool to have, but I don't have $130 to drop on a record set right now even if I was so inclined. I have the original film can 45 rpm version of PIL's Metal Box and it is a pain in the ass to play because I have to remove the platter and switch the belt to the 45 groove of motor spindle and I am inherently lazy. I heard one reviewer say that Death Magnetic sounds like a record that would have come out between ..And Justice For All and the Black Album. I actually like Load okay and really like Reload......so sue me. To me, this one goes back to the thrash roots, but it is still more song based than their real early stuff. Lars' drums also sound much better than the original mix of St. Anger. It sounded like he took the snare off of his snare drum for those sessions and it had a irritating hollow ringing sound to it like a tom that was way too high pitched. I like this new disc. Going with Rick Rubin definately got them back on track. The next record.........yes, I said record because I ordered it on vinyl..........that we have to look forward to AC/DC's Black Ice. Some folks say it is their best work since Back In Black, but I will be happy if it is as good as Balbreaker, which I thought was not only a very good record, but a very good sounding record. Both of the brothers had their old Marshall JTM 45's and 100's rebuilt and retubed with real live NOS Mullard KT66 power tubes before recording that one and their tone was just incredible!!!!!
 
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Is it me or do the guitars on the song they're playing on the radio sound more like Maiden than Metallica (not that Maiden's bad or anything)?
 
wintermute said:
Is it me or do the guitars on the song they're playing on the radio sound more like Maiden than Metallica (not that Maiden's bad or anything)?
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I've noticed Hammet using Gibsons more in the last few years. Also, from whay I have read in the past, a fair amount of the "scooped" tone on studio records is done at the mix board by dropping out the midrange on what is normally a midrangy instrument. This may have been a case of Rick Rubin leaving the sound coming out of the amps alone. Once you get past the compression done in the CD mastering, this record is pretty basic. Listen to Hetfield's vocals. I'm not hearing a whole lot of the standard studio effects like limiting or much in the way of plate reverb or EQ.
 
Finally got it tonight. Took the long way home so I could listen to it in the truck(stock stereo:barf:). The first four tracks made me want to rip out an eye for buying this crap. After that it either started growing on me, or just getting a little better.
Listening to it on my home stereo, and it sounds like an entirely different album-I'm jamming to the same tracks that I hated in the truck.
Not as hard-edged and gritty as I'd like, though it actually sounds more like "real" Metallica now, but...where's the bass? It's all midrange/midbass. Like the whole things been crossed over at 100Hz and up, and the highs attenuated, too.
No kidding, I thought my powered sub had quit working.
 
wintermute said:
Is it me or do the guitars on the song they're playing on the radio sound more like Maiden than Metallica (not that Maiden's bad or anything)?
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Hey wintermute,
Saw Maiden on my birthday this year, May 22, at the pavillion in Concord, CA.
What an incredible show. These old bastards still have it!!:thumbup: They only played songs from the 80's, so you know it just HAD to be good;)

*EDIT* Sorry for going off topic:o
 
Rick Ruben has very little to do with the sound of it. He brings in his "people" to take care of the engineering and mixing, and sets-up the studio time, etc.
 
dano said:
Rick Ruben has very little to do with the sound of it. He brings in his "people" to take care of the engineering and mixing, and sets-up the studio time, etc.
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He has a LOT to do with what the basic sound will be. As for the question about bass, that has been one of the complaints about the compression used on the CD mastering. All midrange to sound good over a standard car system.
I'm probably going to go ahead and buy it on vinyl to get the "proper" mix like the one they apprently used for the tracks on Guitar Hero.
 
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