Death Magnetic

[Hippofish]

Okay enough has been said about how washed up Metallica is and that they sold out many years ago, blah blah blah, that gets old really fast. As far as the music on this album goes, I would say that 7 out of the 10 songs are very similar to stuff that should have come out after master of puppets and before ...and justice for all. They are long riff filled masterpieces of thrash metal. Well maybe that's a little to much, but they are great songs.

The one thing that always gets mixed up with ANYTHING coming from ANY big band is that they always have to top their last album. Well a band, even as great as Metallica, can't always hit the mark perfectly. St. Anger was a donkey punch and a half I can admit that. It was terrible and sounded like my band jamming in the garage beating on a tin can for a snare drum.

Load and Reload should have been mixed down into one album instead of two half ass albums. There were plenty of great songs on those albums, but along with those there were lots of terrible alt rock songs in between them. Even the Black Album, which I like a lot, was a little bit of sell out in my opinion. It sounded awesome and was filled with pretty good songs, but the ballads kind of threw me for a loop and the term "sell out" starting floating around in my mind as I listened to it. However I got over that and realized they were a growing band and they couldn't stay young forever. They needed to move past the beer and Yaigermeister driven tunes and into something a little more adult.

Death Magnetic really surprised me however. I bought it this morning and I have listened to it now at least five times straight through. For a while as I was listening to the galloping drums and guitars on this album it brought me back to the first time I heard Master Of Puppets and it changed my life. Let's get something straight here though, this is NOT as good as Master Of Puppets, but it's pretty fucking close.

I only have one problem with the album. It sounds like there is a lot of clipping on the CD. It sounds distorted to me. Especially some of the more dynamic songs. Has anyone else run into this problem? Is this because I have recorded it and am listening to the copied versions of the CD? I am also listening to the AAC files and they sound the same. I am just wondering what is going on and if my ears are fucked up or if other people hear the same thing.

For this to happen to a major label release is fucking ridiculous. What are they going to do if they run into problems and there is a real problem? Refund all of our money? I think not.

Bottom line if you like older Metallica then you should at least check this album out. It's got some great songs that closely resemble days of old. I personally think it's the best album SINCE Master of Puppets. Go out and listen to it.

Michael

[jb4674]

Opinions are like assholes; everyone's got one.

Metallica didn't "sell out" because they because they went softcore. FYI, they sold out because of the whole napster thing and them wanting to make more money on top of the millions they had already made. Next time you want to talk about the facts, read about them before you make uneducated guesses about the truth.

If you think this album is pretty close to master of puppets, you go right ahead and think that.

Rick Rubin must've been drunk off his ass when he allowed lars to use such a lowsy sounding drum set. The drum set sounds like a 300 dollar kiddie drumset that you can find at your local guitar center. The dynamics of the tracks sound horrible and robert's bass is a hair away from being non-existent (surprise surprise, the same thing was done when jason joined the band). Kirk's leads and phrases sound more like bits and pieces put together and they lack a natural progression from one phrase to the next (listen to "The Day That Never Comes" for an example).

Metallica died a long time ago and this new album is proof that they should stop making music altogether.

Jimmy:smile:

[Hunter33]

After the usual deliberations I go through of wether I can be bothered to listen to the next Metallica album (since Black), I decided as usual to check it out.
After all you can hear the whole thing for free online so why not:
Metallica.com

Not going to go into a lot of detail.

I can hear some influences where some have said this is a return of sorts to old but tbh it doesn't get anywhere close for me.

I found myself skipping forward the tracks to see if the changes in each song where exciting or not. They weren't and the solos were a bit boring and 'I've heard this before'.

I've grown up and maybe they've grown up and no longer represent what they started out as to me.

The only Metallica albums I spin if I need a reminder of where my metal collection started out from are 'Kill Em All' and 'Justice For All'.
They still work.

Signed, another asshole with an opinion.

[DarkReality]

I agree this album does sound like it's clipping pretty bad. My friend was telling me to check it out and I decided to and I had a discussion with him about how it sounds horrible production wise. And he disagreed saying he loved it. I don't get how anyone could love the sound of audio clipping. It's even worse, as well, because this is supposed to be a major mainstream release. Overall though I'm not a fan. The songs are boring. I'm not liking Jame's vocals on some of these tracks. They're not as gritty.

[jeffsanders]

Wow. Opinions sure are like assholes.

IMHO, this CD freakin rocks.

There will never be another Master of Puppets. It is what it is though, and it kicks ass. It is classic Metallica.

[Robitaille20]

There has been talk about the Guitar Hero 3 version of the album sounding WAY better than the original cd...so much so that it made it to Rolling Stone magazine here:Article

Pretty interesting stuff to read...so I did a little research and actually found a rip of the GH3 version and am listening to it right now..... AND IT BLOWS THE CD AWAY! There are actual dynamics...I can feel the kick...no muddy sounds...it's UNBELIEVABLE! The article is TRUE!! WTF??

[DarkReality]

Yeah... I knew there was something wrong with this.

Metallica's new album sounds better in Guitar Hero - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games

[Hippofish]

As far as the Guitar Hero version sounding better I don't think it does actually. It sounds more muddy and muffled but yeah the digital clipping is gone, so it's a give and take relationship I guess.

It's a real shame the CD has to sound like it does. According to Ted at Sterling Sound he was given shit for masters so it was all he had to work with. However that makes no sense when you think about it. Then how did the Guitar Hero stuff sound good? If it was compressed and smashed before Ted got it where did the guys get the versions for guitar hero? Makes you think that Ted might have actually made it worse by just pegging the volume meter on the CD to the max and now we get to hear the smashed versions plus a nice healthy amount of digital clipping. Thanks Ted.

The best place to hear the digital clipping if anyone is having a hard time finding it is during the heavy chorus parts in TDTNC, song #4. About minute 2 or so. You'll know it when you hear it. The headroom shits the bed and it sounds like Bose speakers. All highs, all lows, must be Bose.

P.S. At least he music on the album is pretty decent. It's not the best Metallica album by a long shot, but it's fucking awesome for new stuff.

Enough Said

Michael

[.tom]

I think the captured the sound of metallica perfectly LOL

[jamie78]

I think people are freaking out to much on this. People just love to hate Metallica.