Metallica

[Chris Doremus]

Is Metallica ****ing kidding me with there new album sounding like ASS!!!!! Is it just me or is there a shithell of a lot of distortion ALLL over EVERYTHING!!!! Did anybody buy this album?

[warhead]

It's crazy for sure.

Shame though, if Hetfield could bring back the old pre "Black Album" vocal style and if the sound quality was appropriate for metal, it could have been the greatest thing they've done since "And Justice...".

The distortion is ridiculous, it sounds like a demo mix.

When I say "appropriate" for metal, I mean the sounds chosen also. Man, that snare just doesn't belong in this type of music and the kick is generally bloated and fuzzy (the onset of pointy ass distortion for each kick / snare hit just kills me). There isn't really ROOM for the kick and snare sounds. It doesn't have that tight metal sound, I guess the only small kudos to give is that it does sound organic (I think those kick drum hits are likely real as well as the rest of the kit, which is rare in metal).

War

[Farm sounds]

Over at the official Metallica site, there are alot of people hoping for a remix or remastering already. I could hardly stand listening through my hd280 phones....too bad cause the songs are great. The loudness wars at it's worst for sure.

I think Rubin's hearing must be shot, along with James and Lars. Californication doesn't sound this bad...... if you can believe that.....

Funny how there is no mastering credit on the sleeve?

[Chris Doremus]

I agree with everything you said. Its so weird.... I wanna know who is responsible... I was thinking Rick Rubin but I remember now there last album was a sonic mistake too.... :(

[Vinrockindie]

Ted Jensen isn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Mertmo]

Black album killed it for me forever. I never could stand the slick production combined with their music on that record. Strangely, once I stopped caring about them, parts of Load/Reload sounded okay to me. Kind of like when you see a movie that you KNOW is going to suck, but then it's actually halfway decent and you're pleasantly surprised...? But now their "return to form" starting with St. Anger is just pointless. I would rather see them continue to go more pop than try to return to the Master of Puppets/Justice thing which will NEVER work. As far as the new stuff, I have only heard the one song that was posted first. It does sound very weird, I agree that the snare is stylistically just totally wrong. Completely out of place. But I stopped listening to that stuff the moment the singing started and I realized that the song was just truly horrible. Then it's like, who cares about the engineering? The music is terrible! I would seriously rather listen to Load.

Having said all that, I want to throw out there that I really do respect these guys, and anyone else who manages to keep a band together and continue making records in the face of that kind of insane success.

[Farm sounds]

Originally Posted by Vinrockindie

Ted Jensen isn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe you are correct.....Why no name on the sleeve though? I thought I read somewhere he was already covering his ass saying the final mixes came to him already distorted. Which we all know can happen, but the songs sound much better on the guitar hero 3 game. Which is bizarre to say the least...

[Vinrockindie]

Whoever is responsible, and where in the process it occurred I guess we will never know. We can only speculate. It's not as if someone will step forward and say they are the culprit.

[Chris Doremus]

At one point didn't they look at each other, realize how much crap they got last time they tried for a special "sound" and realize hey lets just make the recording aspect relatively "transparent" (FOR METALLICA......) and just let our song writing take center stage. I'm so curious to see if it flops or if the public ear really has become deaf.

[JPeters86]

It sounds like crap indeed. Unbelievable. These guys have a studio with some great gear. I remember seeing shots from the recording of St. Anger, I assume this was done with at least some of the same gear. They must have really tried hard to make it suck

[JMWS]

The guy who mastered it is a F%&/ING amateur!!! And he should never master again!!! And no one should spent money on this DESTROYED CD!!!

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by JMWS

The guy who mastered it is a F%&/ING amateur!!! And he should never master again!!! And no one should spent money on this DESTROYED CD!!!

First of all, to the OP - couldn't you just have joined in on the existing thread, rather than starting a duplicate? I think by now most of the audio world is agreed that this recording isn't exactly a sonic delight.

Secondly, before the pro that is JMWS decides to criticise Ted Jensen, they should maybe take a read of this thread - Death Magnetic - cunningly hidden away in the mastering forum, geez who'd think about looking for a thread about a record's mastering in there.

[JMWS]

Well I stand corrected then, BUT sort of not...

It seems that Ted Jensen didn´t master this, ´cause it was already "mastered". So my anger should go probably to the guys who mixed it and "mastered" it, Greg Fidelman and Andrew Sheps. And also to Rick Rubin who allowed all this crap to happen and of course the Metallica boys, (but I guess they probably don´t even know what a "loudness war" is). :P

But Ted should have at least done something, be strong and said "I´m not gonna master it, until you mix it again boys and take those brickwall limiters out, this is crap!".

And this topic should get much more notice, than just hiding in the mastering section. This "loudness war" idiotism must stop! It´s gone too far!!!

[Chris Doremus]

I'm insanely sorry for posting mr. monkey I really should have looked harder for other posts. :(

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by Chris Doremus

I'm insanely sorry for posting mr. monkey I really should have looked harder for other posts. :(

...but let's face it, its metallica who should be insanely sorry for inflicting this mess upon the world.

[BOWIE]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

...but let's face it, its metallica who should be insanely sorry for inflicting this mess upon the world.

The album sales thus far would prove otherwise.

[Jack Ruston]

Well no...people tend to buy an album so that they can hear it, not because they've already heard it and decided to ignore the fact that it sounds like ass...although I'm sure there are a number of listeners in that category.

Normally I'd say that it doesn't really matter what a record sounds like if the songs are great but 1. This sounds SO bad that it might be too awful to ignore, and 2. Metal relies on balls and energy and not only is this record distorted badly but it seems to lack balls because of it. Perhaps it didn't have any balls so they tried to create some by redlining every last bit of tracking.

J

[BOWIE]

Originally Posted by Jack Ruston

Well no...people tend to buy an album so that they can hear it, not because they've already heard it

Really? Radio play has nothing to do with album sales? Most people buy albums blindly w/o hearing any songs offthe thing before hand? I never knew this.

I won't argue about distortion, production, lack of balls, etc. However, I think the people on this site are too wrapped up in the production end of things and lose track of what the fans really want. I had a feeling that they were going to do well with this one and it seems to be true (this is coming from someone who does not like them).

[drejmer]

i think it sounds great...
HAHAHAHAHAHA...
oh god... it's such a joke...
so bad... i think it's got to be the worst sounding record i've ever heard... and Im not even saying that to be dramatic...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... shame on you metalica...!!!!
thanks rick for giving us some of the best records of all time... and thanks for giving us the worlds best comedy album!!!

i think i remember my nan saying that she mastered it!

like someone said up there ^^^ "shame the songs are good"!!!

d.

[TheArchitect]

Originally Posted by BOWIE

Really? Radio play has nothing to do with album sales? Most people buy albums blindly w/o hearing any songs offthe thing before hand? I never knew this.

They do when its Metallica. As for radio, who are we kidding. I spend a lot of time in a car for work and I have yet to hear anything on the radio. I stumbled on an article online. That's the only way I even knew they released an album.

Big numbers required sustained sales. It hasn't been out long enough to really know just yet.

[Duardo]

I think this album sounds much better than "St Anger"...I guess I had low expectations...and I think it's more interesting musically as well. Of course it's a little rough around the edges. So is the band...but this is about what I expected from their collaboration with Rubin. I actually prefer its sound to the more polished sound of all of their 1990s output. The splatty distortion on the drums isn't the way I would have done it but I don't think it's as awful as everyone else seems to...and my guess is that a lot of their fans who have been wanting them to go back in the direction of their earlier stuff will like it a lot.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by BOWIE

The album sales thus far would prove otherwise.

but how many more might they have sold if it sounded any good? Some fans will buy things whatever it sounds like, or however good the songs are.

it's the first time I've ever seen regular non-muso fans complain about the sound quality of a record too.

[Han]

Originally Posted by JMWS

The guy who mastered it is a F%&/ING amateur!!! And he should never master again!!! And no one should spent money on this DESTROYED CD!!!

Judge and jury eh?

FWIW:

Okay, here's a response from the mastering engineer:

RE: Death Magnetic mastering job
mailed-by sterling-sound.com

hide details 10:34 AM

Reply

Thanks for writing.

I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice it to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else.

[Star Ark]

I seriously doubt the common Metallica fan cares about the production like the common gearslut does. I'm not saying they won't notice the distortion in places but I highly doubt it will impact on them very much. When you're listening to it on pc speakers or earbuds in crappy mp3 format it's not such a bad thing. And when you consider that earbuds and mp3s is the preferred method of listening to music by most listeners you can see how little the fans care about sound quality.

Just my 2 cents

[truthnlife13]

Originally Posted by doofus

I seriously doubt the common Metallica fan cares about the production like the common gearslut does. I'm not saying they won't notice the distortion in places but I highly doubt it will impact on them very much. When you're listening to it on pc speakers or earbuds in crappy mp3 format it's not such a bad thing. And when you consider that earbuds and mp3s is the preferred method of listening to music by most listeners you can see how little the fans care about sound quality.

Just my 2 cents

thats the consensus. Fans love it, audio fanatics hate it. I lie somewhere in the middle. Love the music, hate the production

[BOWIE]

Originally Posted by truthnlife13

thats the consensus. Fans love it, audio fanatics hate it.

Absolutely true.
A lot of the guys here are passionately infuriated by this album. I really don't get it. I'm just glad to see a rock album doing well. I won't listen to it but I'm certainly not going to let it piss me off.

[davenutz]

Originally Posted by Farm sounds

I believe you are correct.....Why no name on the sleeve though? I thought I read somewhere he was already covering his ass saying the final mixes came to him already distorted. Which we all know can happen, but the songs sound much better on the guitar hero 3 game. Which is bizarre to say the least...

the songs in these games are at least partially remixed, some using stems, others from the full multitracks

[GSF]

I think the whole ****ing thing is just sad.

[PDC]

Wait. Someone above mentioned radio. Is that old technology still in use?

[James Meeker]

Originally Posted by JMWS

The guy who mastered it is a F%&/ING amateur!!! And he should never master again!!! And no one should spent money on this DESTROYED CD!!!

For this type of high profile, big budget project *ALL* the blame lies in the hands of the artists and the producer. But mostly the artists.

Ask yourself--why does almost every Metallica record, except for the ones that the producer had any real say in, sound like crap? Hrm.... it's not too hard to figure out the common elements here.

Let's recap a bit from their last few records:

Death Magnetic... okay, no Bob Rock, no Jason Newsted, but we have James, Trujilo, Kirk and Lars here. Rick Rubin makes his debut as their producer. Generally speaking, while this is no St. Anger fiasco, this record sounds really, really bad. At least St. Anger tried to have heart, even if it sounded wretched.

St. Anger... okay, Bob Rock is here, no Jason Newsted either, but we do have James, Lars and Kirk in attendance. Generally considered to be one of the worst sounding major releases in history. It's obvious that most bands would have skipped out on even attempting a record because of the state they were in, but Metallica soldiered on for better or worse. Generally speaking, from everything I've gathered the production was more Lars' call than anyone else. Hetfield was almost a no show, and Hammett doesn't really have much say in the band (not that I can blame him).

Load and Reload... Bob Rock is present, so is Newsted, we also have Lars, James and Kirk. While not as celebrated or vibrant sounding as "Metallica" these recordings do sound pretty good for the most part.

Black Album... Bob Rock joins the fray, so is James, Newsted, Lars and Kirk. However, this album is almost universally considered to sound fantastic and is one of the "holy grails" of heavy rock production.

...And Justice For All... James, Lars, Jason and Kirk here, but no real producer, although Flemming Rasmussen did help track the record, was kind of fired and then "assisted" a bit in the mixing. For the most part, Hetfield and Ulrich admit to needing "guidance" after this record because of the long, wandering songs and lack of production skill. This record is, of course, famous for its absence of any bass guitar in the final product.

This is my perspective. Metallica cried and complained after they did AJFA that they'd never write unfocused, rambling, super long songs again because they got sick and tired of playing them live plus the band didn't think the record sounded very good.

So, twenty years later what do they do?

They write another record filled with long, rambling, unfocused songs that sound like crap!

Evidently they are going to have to learn the same lesson twice, because you know a year from now they'll be whining and complaining about making things "too hot" on the mixes/masters, how they need to pare down the song length, write more direct material, blah blah blah.

It's *SO* amazing to me that these guys can be the "top" rock band in the world and make so many absolutely terrible decisions. These guys must have 90 lives and, to paraphrase the late comedian Bill Hicks, have pleasured Satan's knob with both vigilance and vigor.

But hey, they've sold 100 million records, they must know what they are doing, right? Sigh.