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Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 12:05 Every time this song starts playing, I could swear it's Mike's Enigmatism. (BTW, sound issues aside, the new album is an impressive return to form. Haven't listened to it enough to really say much about it at this point, but I can already tell that I like it quite a bit! ) Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 12:46 They appeared on the Later With Jools Holland show over here last night and performed that song live amongst other things.There`s a clip here up on youtube already which also includes a short tribute to Rick Wright.I`m not a big fan myself although I do like Beatallica.A friend of mine absolutely loves them though and says the same thing you do about the new album.Which yeah he keeps on getting onto me to try and listen to it so there`s still time left for me yet I guess. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 14:37 I think "The Day that Never Comes" is a nice song, kind of a cross between Iron Maiden and (old) Metallica. I don't think it's a masterpiece, however, for three reasons: 1) Lars Ulrich makes too much noise with his drums. 2) The instrumental part is too long, and messy. The song as a whole is too long! 3) James Hetfield ain't Bruce Dickinson (of course) However, I agree with you about the album. It's certainly better than  St. Anger, and tracks like "The Unforgiven III" and the instrumental "Suicide & Redemption" are worth the price of the whole CD. They're really back to form. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 16:28 I had a feeling I'd like the album since long before it was released, I can't explain why... I'm not even that much of a Metallica fan! I really like the pre-black album stuff and I used to like the Black Album itself, but it's been overplayed to the point where I can hardly say objectively what I think about it... by the time the Loads were released, I was in deeply in my prog rock phase and not very interested in Metallica at all... in retrospect the albums aren't bad but never really clicked with me. Though I'll admit I still haven't properly heard Reload. St. Anger... what I heard of it just sounded ugly to me. Strangely enough though, I had this feeling that this time they'd get it right. And now with the album having arrived, I find that they've actually surpassed my expectations! Some of the things I've heard on there so far didn't just sound good, like I'd expected them to, but genuinely inspired and great. That was quite unexpected really. Shame about the sound quality though... it's like Vapor Trails all over again. Back to top

Bassman Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: Feb. 2008 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 16:59 @ Holger.  Glad I'm not the only one here heartbroken about "Vapor Trails".  I'm curious, have you signed any of the petitions? @ Ugo.  I agree with you about too much noise coming from Ulrich's drums.  I find there is usually too much noise coming from his mouth! -------------- Turn up the music... Hi as Fi can go. Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 19:32 Vapor Trails is a symbol of the absolutely horrid production values of the last years. And I'm positive I'm not alone in this issue. -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

Olivier Group: Super Admins Posts: 1868 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Sep. 20 2008, 22:30 The album contains a track called The Unforgiven III. I've read somewhere that it's Godfather II that started this powerful marketing technique in 1974. Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 04:26 Quote (Bassman @ Sep. 20 2008, 22:59) @ Holger.  Glad I'm not the only one here heartbroken about "Vapor Trails".  I'm curious, have you signed any of the petitions? I have now, after you reminded me (for VT, that is, not for DM), though I'm not very optimistic they'll really achieve anything... Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 04:53 Quote (Holger @ Sep. 20 2008, 22:28) Shame about the sound quality though... it's like Vapor Trails all over again. Please explain this to me. Vapor Trails is a Rush album, right? As I'm not a Rush fan at all, what has it got to do with Metallica? Maybe it's to be taken to mean that Death Magnetic sounds too loud? And what are the petitions about Vapor Trails? Thanks in advance for your explanations... @ Olivier, I don't think "The Unforgiven III" has anything to do with my (homonym-not-related) F.F.Coppola's well-known trilogy. It's just that those three songs [on the Black Album, on  Reload and here] concern similar themes. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 05:03 Quote (Ugo @ Sep. 21 2008, 10:53) Quote (Holger @ Sep. 20 2008, 22:28) Shame about the sound quality though... it's like Vapor Trails all over again. Please explain this to me. Vapor Trails is a Rush album, right? As I'm not a Rush fan at all, what has it got to do with Metallica? Maybe it's to be taken to mean that Death Magnetic sounds too loud? And what are the petitions about Vapor Trails? Yes, it's Rush's 2002 album. Like "Death Magnetic", it suffers from a mastering job that pushed things way too far, squashing the signal flat, losing all dynamics and introducing lots of digital clipping / distortion in the process. It's common practice these days to master albums super-loud, but few albums suffer as severely from the phenomenon as Vapor Trails and Death Magnetic. If you'd like to know more about the phenomenon, here's a Wikipedia article about it. The petition is simply for a remaster and / or remix of the album to fix the sound issues. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 07:00 @ Holger, thanks a lot. I wonder whether the phenomenon is limited to rock/metal albums, or it's a more generalized thing. DM certainly sounds loud to me, but I was supposing that it was more because of the fact that it was actually played loud, than because of mixing/mastering... -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Holger Group: Members Posts: 1506 Joined: Feb. 2003 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 08:05 It's absolutely not limited to rock and metal. Mainstream pop, hip hop and other styles suffer from it just as much. (By contrast, I've found Music of the Spheres to be very dynamic indeed and not squashed at all, so I'm guessing that classical and orchestral music are not affected by this to the same degree. I don't know about jazz, I haven't really heard a new jazz recording in quite a while, but I really hope they don't do this to jazz as well!) Back to top

Dirk Star Group: Members Posts: 1331 Joined: Sep. 2007 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 09:21 Paul McCartney`s album Memory Almost Full is another one that suffers from over compression.I really love that album as well but if I listen to it too loudly and too often it starts to give me a headache after a while.Everything is so much in your face it`s ridiculous.It`s kind of the same principle as when you`re watching the ad-breaks on the tv,and they compress everything down so bloody far that they sound a million times louder than the programme you`re actualy watching.Annoys the hell out of me.Plus getting back to albums it`s particularly annoying if you`re wanting to make a complilation disc up of your favourite artist or something.Any kind of unchronoligical order involved and the volume is up and down like a bride`s nightdress.The whole thing is bloody farcical.And all of that is without even mentioning the actual sound deterioation that it creates anyway.Which with all this fantastic technology that we`re supposedly surrounded by now makes it nothing short of a complete joke imo. Back to top

Olivier Group: Super Admins Posts: 1868 Joined: Nov. 1999 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 12:36 Quote (Ugo @ Sep. 21 2008, 04:53) @ Olivier, I don't think "The Unforgiven III" has anything to do with my (homonym-not-related) F.F.Coppola's well-known trilogy. It's just that those three songs [on the Black Album, on  Reload and here] concern similar themes. What it has to do is with it the III, I was saying that The Godfather II started the "sequel artistic movement". It was an amazing an innovative movie even on a marketing point of view. Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 12:45 @ Olivier: OK, my mistake. However, according to Wikipedia, The Godfather Part II was not the first-ever film to have a sequel, but just the first to use a Roman numeral in its title. The first film to get a sequel was 1934's The Thin Man. @ Holger: thanks a lot for the further specification. The point in the "Loudness war" Wikipedia article about the same treatment being applied on ABBA's "One of us" (and actually on the whole of their Complete Studio Recordings box set) surprised me quite a bit... Indeed, the song sounds much better on the (older) 2005 remaster I've got of ABBA's The Visitors album. Sorry for the very off-topic post. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Bassman Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: Feb. 2008 Posted: Sep. 21 2008, 13:15 If anyone cares to contribute, I'm going to open up a fresh thread on the "loudness war" issue. -------------- Turn up the music... Hi as Fi can go. Back to top

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