THE NIGHT SIREN

I'm not a kind of Steve's fan that loves everything he does. So, I'm far from being auto-buyer of Steve's albums. I bought this album after reading a long list of cool collaborators, samples on YouTube, some reviews and in anticipation of a great 5.1 Blu-Ray sound. Yes, I'm 5.1 sucker and collector! :) I was really disappointed! I don't want to write too much about music: other people here did it already. I just want to say I liked it more than I expected. However, the sound and mix SUCK, big time! This so-called "Blu-Ray" "DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio" sounds worse than miserable Dolby Digital DVDs from 1990! Drums virtually non-exists! They are barely audible, and what you hear deep beneath layers of vocals, guitar and keys sounds like kids play on toy drums. Slapping and hissing. Bass guitar is also not there. The only good news is vocals, guitar and keyboard parts are audible. Overall mix sounds like some bad troll grabbed the master tape before it was transferred to DVD and CD and cut all low and high frequencies. Sorry, maybe this is just me, but I can't fully enjoy music that sounds that miserable! As of 5.1, I noticed some sound was coming from rare speakers just a couple of times. Channel separation is poor: instrument parts scattered among channels , everything comes from all channels most of the time, including voice that supposed to come from the center. If you don't trust me, just spin anything else, like, for instance latest The Tangent opus (which is not exactly audiophile quality, but much better sounding!), to hear the big difference! Did Steve listen to this product before releasing it? Probably not, because, according to reviews, people don't give a damn about it. :( Overall: Music: - 4. One of the best Steve's albums with a lot of good tunes, details and nuances. Sound: - 2. The bad mix killed this excellent alum!