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from the some-art,-some-science,-and-a-whole-lotta-black-magic dept.
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: 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?"