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According to many Metallica devotees, the official version of the band's 2008 record Death Magnetic is not the one worth listening to. Upon the album's release, fan forums exploded in disgust, choked with complaints that the songs sounded shrill, distorted, ear-splitting. These listeners liked the music and the songwriting, but everything was so loud they couldn't really hear anything. There was no nuance. Their ears hurt. And these are Metallica fans—people ostensibly undeterred by extremity. But this was too much.
The consensus seemed to be that Death Magnetic was a good record that sounded like shit. That the whole thing was drastically over-compressed, eliminating any sort of dynamic range. That it had been ruined in mastering. Eventually, more than 12,000 fans signed a petition in protest of the "unlistenable" product, and a mass mail-back-a-thon of CDs commenced. The whole episode provoked a series of questions, not just about what had gone wrong with Death Magnetic but about the craft in question: What is mastering, exactly? How does it work? Beyond the engineers themselves, almost no one seems to know.
An article on sound engineering, but the real question is, people listened to Metallica after 2000?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rich on Tuesday May 24 2016, @10:44PM
Remember, Metallica are a business venture, not a bunch of wealthy retirees doing music for fun. The classic promotion channel for new music is radio, radio is mostly listened in (from early to late) kitchens, cars, shops, and bars. You get lots of background noise there, so the least dynamic mix is the most perceptible. Or with a silent background, simply the loudest. Hence, it sticks and turns into sales. The wheel which squeaks loudest gets the oil. The industry surely has internal research on how much a drop dynamics will increase sales for certain music styles. Also, with album sales in general declining, they might decide to crank the compressor up a bit further to squeeze out what money is left in the thing.
Music (and particularly Prog Metal) connoisseurs will listen to something not Metallica anyway. Dream Theater, Fates Warning, whatever, so it's a non-issue. A lot of unsigned local bands run cicles around Metallica writing- and performance-wise these days. Metallica were good for the energy of the first two albums, and the artistry of the third. No Cliff, no proper Metallica.
ps: I wanted to find some numbers on an example to illustrate how overcompressed "bubblegum rock pop" at the height of the loudness wars was, and I found that link. Didn't even know that it existed, but it's on-topic as it gets: http://dr.loudness-war.info/ [loudness-war.info]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 24 2016, @11:07PM
It does my heart good that The Shaggs apparently have higher quality masters than more commercially successful artists.
"Hear that fidelity mother fucker..."
"My pal foot-foot..."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday May 24 2016, @11:14PM
Wow, another Fates Warning fan. We're a rare breed.
They need to get their butts back in the studio and give us another masterpiece.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rich on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:19AM
Wow, another Fates Warning fan.
Heh. Where did I say so? I just mentioned that I think many people who scientifically care about the dynamic range of their music will probably appreciate Fates Warning, too ;). I think at times they can be a bit difficult to listen to, but they have that side project, O.S.I., which I find super chilly.
Myself, apart from classic and new Metal, Punk, Oi, Industrial, Electro, and Space stuff, I'm lately interested in some far east approaches to these genres; Tengger Cavalry, Shonen Knife, Mad Capsule Markets. Oh, and Babymetal. Their live band hammered like Marduk fearing to miss the last tank to Poland (...to join Behemoth for a concert of course ;) when I saw them around here.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday May 25 2016, @08:55PM
With advances in sound systems in vehicles and headphones with actual dynamic range, I find myself listening to Prog much more in the car or at work when I cannot use a proper sound system. I still feel that something like A Pleasant Shade of Gray is difficult to properly appreciate in these circumstances. But even then it is my favorite piece of music of all time.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by ramloss on Tuesday May 24 2016, @11:50PM
Excuse me, but in what possible way does Progressive Metal relate to Metallica? You could have stopped at music connoisseurs and spared me the effort of listening to those bands, nothing at all to do with heavy metal. On the other hand, it's feels weird to talk about my fallen idols, I have not thought about them since the Napster episode. Never looked back, don't miss them.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Wednesday May 25 2016, @12:37AM
Excuse me, but in what possible way does Progressive Metal relate to Metallica?
Well, from the assumption that people who care about fine dynamics will also care about fine artistry, I deduced that they will not care about how Metallica's later works are mastered while they listen to Dream Theater. (They probably fear their ears might suffer from Lars' later drumming.) The (unmentioned) reverse logic therefore says that people who listen to (recent) Metallica mostly don't care about dynamics. Therefore, the amount of whiners is negligible to Metallica, Inc.
But concerning Metallica themselves, I'd say e.g. "Orion" passes the bar to "prog". Details: http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/10/09/transcription-cliff-burtons-orion/ [notreble.com], and, ironically, mentioned Dream Theater have covered "Master of Puppets" in its entirety.
(Score: 1) by ramloss on Wednesday May 25 2016, @01:23AM
Well, from the assumption that people who care about fine dynamics will also care about fine artistry, I deduced that they will not care about how Metallica's later works are mastered while they listen to Dream Theater...
Yeah, yeah, I get that, but why single out those bands? any people who care about fine dynamics would suffice; why single out progressive rock enthusiasts?
But concerning Metallica themselves, I'd say e.g. "Orion" passes the bar to "prog". Details: http://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/10/09/transcription-cliff-burtons-orion/ [notreble.com] [notreble.com], and, ironically, mentioned Dream Theater have covered "Master of Puppets" in its entirety.
That some song from Metallica qualifies as "prog" if looked at in the right way or some other has been covered by other band does not mean that they belong to that genre. My comment was, slightly in jest, that mentioning some other bands specifically made me listen to them, only to find that I don't care about their music at all ;-)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday May 25 2016, @02:11PM
I have not thought about them since the Napster episode. Never looked back, don't miss them.
We're apparently working under different definitions of "idol."
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"