metallica - back to the roots?

[puppydog]

i've heard two songs from the upcoming album;

"cyanide" (heard a clip) and sounds awesome a-la seek & detroy

"that day never comes" - starts out like some recent crap but ends like a real banger.

could the next album be worth listening to??? i think maybe.

[ninearms]

I'd say it's a pretty good return to form. Obviously it's no RTL or MOP, but it's pretty decent. Hated Cyanide the first time I heard it, and wasn't keen on the end of The Day That Never Comes, but in the context of the album they work very well, and improve on repeated listens.

The thing about the last few albums is that they very too straightforward. Metallica songs have always been about "parts", and stripping them down to basic verse/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/end just seemed to suck the life out of them (St Anger just repeated the same pattern twice in a row). Plus James' lyrics have been getting progressively worse. If there's one thing they've got right this time it's songs with parts.

Opening track is a banger, proper fast Justice-style stuff, with a few vocal nods to that album. Unforgiven III starts with some Nyman-esque piano before the Morricone-esque horns kick in, which I'm always going to back.

Overall vibe I'd say it's a mix of Justice, The Black Album, and a little bit of Ride The Lightning.

[Rubber_Ritchie]

Did anyone see them on tv/live at Reading recently? Is it me or is Lars' drumming a bit off these days? I remember around the Load time when they hadn't toured/recorded for ages he said that he hadn't touched the drums in a year! I never go a day without playing the bass.

I don't think we'll ever see a great Metallica album again. James and Lars are rich boys, married with kids. Although, you'd think marriage and kids would be a perfect catalyst to help one write angry music.

[Gamblor]

Just remember the golden days lads. I don't feel any need to buy or own any records of Metallica's from after 1989. Actually, the same could pretty much be said of Iron Maiden.
I may be mistaken, and if anyone can get a good album out of Metallica it's Rick Rubin but I'm not going to rush out and buy it.

[xbojanx]

It is a bit less boring than stuff from previous 20 years

[puppydog]

just got this album and i have a few things to say.

first, the music itself, while nothing groundbreaking, is at leat as Ninearms put it, a good return to form. I've heard stuff like this before but Metallica does it as well as anybody.

unfortunately, the recording engineer or producer or somebody needs to be shot.

this album is so overcompressed it's sickening. you can tell by listening, but if you take a snippet of ten seconds from any song, you can see they've compressed it so heavy and it's almos always at full compression.

everything sounds muddled and distorted. these guys should know better. really disappointing in that regard and makes my ears cringe.

[ninearms]

There's definitely something very odd going on with the compression levels. From what I've read it appears that it was already brickwalled before it even reached the mastering engineer, but for some reason the versions on Guitar Hero don't suffer from the same problem.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/doe ... licas.html

[puppydog]

There's definitely something very odd going on with the compression levels. From what I've read it appears that it was already brickwalled before it even reached the mastering engineer, but for some reason the versions on Guitar Hero don't suffer from the same problem.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/doe ... licas.html

Weird.

Yeah I wouldn't expect the mastering engineer to be responsible for this; or even the mixing engineer although i guess that's possible.. In all likelihood they got crap source material and had to do what they could with it. (something you might expect from a garage band, not from rick rubin.... )

Although very odd if there are versions out there that sound better.

I blame Pro-Tools.

[ninearms]

I'm downloading the GHIII version now, so I'll let you know how it compares. Apparently you can actually hear the hi-hats!

I blame the Loudness War.

[ninearms]

OK, just had a quick listen to a couple of tracks from the GH3 version...

Holy shit! Rob's bass clearly audible, Lars' kick drum clearly audible, actual dynamics, no clipping on the snare, no bassy farting during The Day That Never Comes. Guitar sounds much tamer (I admit the CD version guitar sound is awesome) but warmer too. Plus there's a 2nd version of Suicide & Redemption with the solo done by Kirk instead of James. I don't think I'll listen to the proper version again now. Probably needs a tiny bit of EQing but nothing drastic.

Get it here in FLAC format

[puppydog]

thanks dude, i look forward to checking this out and comparing the difference.

this is the first i heard of 'the loudness war' since about 2000 when i read an article about how, well, everything is super compressed now.

the newer music i mostly listen to and write is techno and there's no loudness war i'm aware of in that genre. a lot of the 'rules' of mixing and mastering and recording go out the window because the way of recordign and composing, etc is so different than traditional live rock instrumentation.

[ninearms]

Just listened to the GH3 version on headphones. Incredible differences. Space! Backing vocals!

[Dave Noisy]

I dunno, after i heard the lyrics 'suicide - i already died', i haven't stopped laughing.

They sound like 12yr olds trying to sound 'tough'....haha

[xbojanx]

Well, 12-year olds are their best audience

[ghost]

first time I heard "That Was Just Your Life" on the radio, while driving.. I thought it was cool... I think it was that one. It sounds pretty hardcoreish or punkish. I thought the whole album is kinda bland but I've never heard the retail version I think. Only heard the leaked ones and I guess it's harder to find the REAL version amongst all the leaked versions so. I'm downloading the GH3 version. What is it with Guitar Hero versions of music? I've never owned guitar hero so maybe I'm just lost.