Metallica - Death Magnetic - new album discussion

Thx for the clarification.

I wonder if SH/KG did the 45RPM for the deluxe LP set? I would guess not.

 

According to the Metallica site, the 45rpm 5LP version is mastered at Mofi. No indication about the standard LP set.

 

I think the song is okay once Hetfield backs away from the mic. Not good or great, but okay.

 

I heard "The Day That Never Comes" on the radio this morning. All I can say is Wow! I was quite happy with what I heard. 8+ minutes of the closest Metallica can come to recapturing the bombast of their last great album, And Justice For All.

I myself am quite excited about this album's release. And it will be the first album by the band I have bought since the Black Album, which I did not keep.

And, even better, double vinyl!

Yep, I'll say, Metallica is back. Too bad it took them 20 years to the year to just get in there and play their asses off in the way that made me love the band in the first place.

 

I've heard the higher bitrate version from iTunes and the pay section of Mission Metallica. Take the worst mastered song/album you know, multiply it by a thousand, and you'll have an idea of how clipped and distorted this song is. It's unreal how loud it is.

I'd like to think someone clearly messed up when they extracted and encoded this for digital release, but considering how bad the music industry these days is, I wouldn't be surprised if some idiot mastered the entire album like this. it would easily eclipse the terrible job Rubin has done with Californication (and other recent releases of his).

The song, however, is quite good, especially at the halfway point where it speeds up and gets thrashy. Very dry production, plus the rhythm progression, make this song very "One"-ish in feel.

-HM

 

I have a 15 mB mp3 from Mission: Metallica and was saddended to see how loud it is. Metal is meant to be played loud, but the loud mastering makes that impossible without hearing unintentional (?) distortion that is staticky and grating. It's nuts to see the clean intro peg my red line in Cool Edit 2000. The last minute of the song is nearly constantly in the red.

Regarding the song itself, it also disappoints. It's not surprising since I have never liked the leadoff U.S. single from an album since Justice. All the right ingredients are there, but they are mixed in proportions that just aren't to my taste.

I am optimistic about the rest of the album because there have been better songs than the lead single on each album, but the production/mastering leaves me concerned.

 

Prove it.

 

Many of the riffs are relatively weak and lack the aggressive "bite" one had come to expect at this point in thrash metal (some have called this riffing style "whiffle ball thrash"). This was almost certainly due to the drying-up of Mustaine-influenced material (listening to the first few Megadeth albums generally show that there was still some Mustain ideas being bounced around Metallica's first two albums even though he left). Many of the musical ideas on the record seem unfinished and just kind of hang there without any real impact. They also don't really contribute to the advancement of metal as a genre. If anything, a lot of the whiffle-ness of the album helped water-down metal, especially thrash metal. Do you think it's a coincedence that thrash really went down the tubes after this album came out? It isn't. Bands started to copy the plodding, go-nowhere crap Metallica presented instead of attempting to take the ideas presented by better, more forward-thinking albums, like Pleasure to Kill or Darkness Descends. Seriously, listen to those two albums, and then listen to Master of Puppets.

It's also worth mentioning that the ideas presented are overall weak and uninspired. The album was part of the trend of "social commentary" in metal, where bands would write songs about "POLLUTION IS BAD" or "DRUGS WILL KILL YOU" without examining the deeper meanings to anything, instead focusing in on the headlines. Hence the term, "CNN metal". At least with the bands that were all "SATAN SATAN SATAN" or "KILL KILL KILL", the music and lyrics made sense and worked together. Metallica's crap on MOP didn't.

 

MOP has some nice guitar work.

 

I don't put that much thought into it. If it makes me feel good when I listen to it, then it's fine for me.

 

It's funny that Metallica would be criticized for not wallowing in such tired heavy metal cliches like "Satan" or "Kill." By this logic, they should also be criticized for not writing enough songs about groupies, hot cars, and supermodels. Oh, more tunes about "rocking out!!!!"

Hah - funny. I'm 35 now, and many of my friends were Metallica freaks in the '80s when they and the other thrash bands were all underground. The whole '80s underground music world - thrash and speed metal, hardcore punk, hip hop - was built upon directly rebelling against the pop music of its day. I think the punk aesthetic ruled the roost; we were all Ramones in spirit, even if the music was vastly different. But there's a clear line connecting Dead Kennedys Husker Du to Metallica to Megadeth to Run DMC Public Enemy. It was the music of the streets (the movie Style Wars comes to mind as I write).

The punk and thrash bands threw themselves into topical, political material because it was the very opposite of airy pop and hair metal. We were the anti-Poison. The anti-Michael Bolton. The anti-Stryper. The anti-New Kids on the Block. Yet more rock anthems on the hot groupie chicks? How does a kid relate to that in 1980's America? So that's how you distinguished yourself in the scene. You dealt with war, poverty, hypocricy, urban decay, corporatism, yadda yadda.

This is a crucial reason why you really can't go back again. Asking 45-year-olds to revisit their youth a generation ago, now that everything and everyone has scattered to the four winds, is a fool's game. You'll never recapture the spirit of those days. No artist can. You can only capture the present moment. Bitter medicine for aging adults who look to their rockstars to turn back the clock, and turn us all into teenagers again.

I vastly prefer the "CNN Metal" to the tired, nerd claptrack that metal has descended into. Now it's just a teenage macho joke, just waiting the elf ears and the 12-sided dice. In my humble opinion, of course. But I've always preferred protest music, anyway. If you have nothing to say that's useful in daily life, what's the point? There are enough bland love songs and car commercials.

Now, if all these bands stayed in the same realm forever, I would agree. It's best to move on, to evolve and explore new ideas. I know that's poison to the headbangers, but that's just the way life works. Thank goodness The Beatles evolved. Thank goodness Dylan evolved. If I had to listen to a half dozen Metallica albums that aped Ride the Lightning, I'd go crazy and shoot someone. And I love that album!

I've been a great admirer of Master of Puppets for many years. It represents the pinnacle of thrash metal to my ears (although speed metal junkies will obviously go for Slayer's Reign in Blood). I think I prefer the diversity on the third Metallica album. Fast songs, slow songs. Heavy songs, light songs. The personal and the political. The blistering and the beautiful. I've never understood the backlash, the way Metallica split its fans right down the middle when Black Album exploded. This band was always bigger than one sound. They were far closer to Led Zeppelin than their peers. And I wish heavy rock music would discover that imagination again. I wish it could recapture that original sense of wonder, of opening up to new ideas. It's far too cliquish and Puritanical. We need a new Houses of the Holy. We need a new Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Anyway, hope I didn't ramble too far, but it got my brain whirling.....

 

I keep going back and forth on Master of Puppets. Right now, I'm in one of those phases where I really, really like it.

It's not really a thrash album to me, though, it's just a good metal record.

 

Totally agree, still my second favorite Metallica album.

 

This. This, this, this.

 

If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work. It seems to me that at least you're looking at it critically. One of the few dissenting opinions I've read - and that's OK, because there is no law that says something is a classic just because a lot of people say so. You shouldn't have to "prove it", as if you're on trial or something.

Nicely put, Daniel Thomas. I like Slayer a lot but haven't really liked any of their music since Seasons. Variation on a theme. Diabolus in Musica is their most interesting record since Seasons, but only Paul Bostaph seems to think so; Slayer fans hate it because it sounds "nu metal" or somesuch bullocks. See? Metallica are shat on because they try to break away from their earlier thrash/progressive metal; Slayer are praised because they "don't compromise" by changing too much, but let's not talk about that Diabolus album. Whatever you, the fans will ***** on you.

 

Yes. Listeners apply so many rules to music, which doesn't have any rules.

 

Metallica should do a reverse beatles,that is dont put out any more cds just tour.

 

Personally, I think they should just give it up, retire, and reflect on their grave idiocy.

 

I`m surprised metallica or Slayer never tried making an instrumental Thrash record,maybe it would go over better without vocals for something different.

 

Anybody post this link yet?

http://www.metallica.com/index.asp?item=601119

 

They're playing the song on Sirius "Hard Attack" as well.

The song is growing on me, but the problem I have is it sounds like pieces of three unfinished songs put together. I can't wait to hear the rest of it.

 

It is possible that there are fans that fall outside the sweeping generalizations.

If Diabolus In Musica was an album with four, 10 minute progressive metal tunes with acoustic interludes, I would've been ecstatic. It's not. To me, it sounds like a big time attempt at Industrial and/or Nu Metal, two genres which I couldn't dislike more. Perhaps that's bullocks or perhaps it's just a really lame album.
I confess... I didn't like Slayer's experimental album. Shoot me.
Not that the other three post Seasons In The Abyss releases are that much better, one or two fairly good songs each with a lot of B level thrash filler. Heck, I like Load better overall than anything Slayer has put out post SITA.

 

I've always wanted Slayer to do an instrumental or go a little progressive. Lot's of riffing, crazy time changes and totally letting Dave Lombardo loose!!

 

I've listened to The Day That Never Comes and Cyanide multiple times now. I'm just not feeling it.

 

I think those 2 tracks are horrible. As for Cyanide, are they trying to be the new Pantera?


"it was discovered that Ted Jensen from Sterling Sound Studios would be mastering the new record. Supposedly, he signed on to do it on August 24, 2006. Their name has since been removed from Ted Jensen's list of projects, however, According to Blabbermouth.net and other sources, Greg Fidelman, who has served as an sound engineer, has also been tapped to mix the album"


Poor Ted.