Metallica - Death Magnetic
I’ve been told to check this out, as a return to form of sorts for a band who rivals Guns And Roses for detractors, an impressive feat considering GNR has Axl Rose spending ten years obsessing over an album with no songs. Then I also realized this is the album which has audio people freaking out even more than ever about over-compression (ie reducing the range between loud and quiet, so as to make the whole thing loud and therefore audible in a modern music listening environment).
Actually, I’m just listening to some stuff off this album from Metallica’s myspace page, because I can’t find any other free source of complete tracks.
My first impression listening to “Broken, Beat, & Scarred” is that the crunch guitars sound really nasty, like spraying mayonnaise through a garden hose nozzle. That’s good.
Then the vocals come in and it sounds like the guy is a little bean sized fellow at the bottom of the sink. That’s not too good.
My conclusion is that the studio tools to mayonnaise-nozzle guitars are much more effective than those to un-bean-sink-bottom vocals.
Over-compressing the final mix is also to blame, as of course if the guitars are already at maximum volume, the vocal has no room on top to make noise of its own.
8 months ago
