Your expectations on Metallica's "Death Magnetic"

Peter wrote:   For the record, I think Metallica's "Enter Sandman" is a pretty cool song!

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=-j39ABZyzek

Pretty strong imagery there ... and even stronger music. Please watch it and let me know what you think about it.


Edited by MikeEnRegalia - September 13 2008 at 04:29

^ I agree, although I've only played it twice already I'm thinking this is a great album, easily the best since the Black album if not better. Might even be their best since Master of Puppets!......but a few more plays are needed before I commit to that.

Peter wrote: For the record, I think Metallica's "Enter Sandman" is a pretty cool song!

That's not what you said in Elliston, when I put the track on my iPod (I dunno - I thought it followed on pretty well... trad folk, System Of A Down, Metallica)

Some people eh?

Peter wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: Peter wrote:   For the record, I think Metallica's "Enter Sandman" is a pretty cool song! http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=-j39ABZyzek Pretty strong imagery there ... and even stronger music. Please watch it and let me know what you think about it. I just listened to/viewed the track, Mike.   Was the song based upon the movie, I wonder? And what movie was that? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067277/ And the movie is - like the song - based on a book. You can read more about One here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_(Metallica_song)   I'm not sure if the message was meant to be universal, or only for the one unfortunate soldier depicted in the movie. I'm not sure what the message was either, beyond the obvious "war is hell" and "sometimes life can become intolerable."   In any case, it made me want to see the movie, but it did not make me want to rush out and buy any Metallica CDs  -- despite the world-class hair swirling!   Metal will never really be my thing (due mainly to the agressive music & vocals, which make me feel tense), but if your point was to reinforce the fact that metal lyrics are not always trite or formulaic, mission accomplished.   I guess that was my point ... but also that Metal lyrics and music aren't always immature and tasteless (some of them are ... I know Cannibal Corpse). I think that the song is quite a sincere effort ... it's message is simple (as you said, "war is hell"), but I see no problem in that. Pretty darn depressing, though. I get those feeling from the news, reading about the Holocaust, etc -- I turn to music for respite from all that depressing reality.... Me too ... at least sometimes. But I can't always listen to one end of the spectrum ... I enjoy contrast. For example, yesterday I was listening to Bob Harris - The Great Nostalgia: http://progfreak.com/Bob-Harris-The-Great-Nostalgia-Review-by-MikeEnRegalia-,_dbe,reviews,_auto_5635706.xhtml (a serious recommendation ) and before that I was listening to the new Metallica album. I can't say that the Bob Harris album made me happy and the Metallica album pulled me down ... I'd rather say that I simply enjoyed both of them. Both ends of the spectrum are an illusion, reality lies in between.   Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you found it interesting.

Edited by MikeEnRegalia - September 16 2008 at 13:32

i too think Enter Sandman is a cool song. i just listened to it about 29486217846278563279848732436839508364598769347856 times and the magic is gone.

which is why ive tried to not listen to that song (and a few others) for a very long time (almost a year now) i will probably put it on in the near future though. you cant deny that intro!

The problem is that it's not only loud, but also badly distorted. distortion is a cool effect if used appropriately (metal wouldn't exist without distortion). What makes DM so bad is that even bass and snare drum are heavily distorted. (Un)fortunately you don't hear it so much on bad systems ... if you can't hear it on your system then, with all due respect, I think that a new one may be in order.

Negoba wrote: We've never loved Lars for his wisdom.

LOL!!!

I read somewhere on the internet that this over-compression was calculated: such a controversial sound would make people talk about the album more than it deserves! Metallica made it and that's what happened! And now people talk about the sound rather than the music

^ then maybe it's the amp? Honestly, the distortion in the drums is clearly audible on all my systems (computer speakers at home, hi-fi at home, headphones at home, computer speakers at work, mobile player).

^No offense intended, but I know Mike is already completely aware of what you said, even if it seems from his post that it might not be implied.
He's a musician who plays guitar, I'm pretty sure he can discern the difference between desirable clipping (for eg. the sound of a cranked up tube amp) and undesirable digital and harsh clipping.

He even has put some recordings of his own on PA if you look around and they were far from being overly compressed, let alone brick walled.

^

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=105822

Ted Jensen himself doesn't want to be associated with the album, so clearly someone saw there was a problem and admitted it.
The problem for him was, he was sent a super hot mix before any mastering even occurred.

"But I've been listening to it the last couple of days in my car, and it sounds f**kin' smokin'."

Geezus, it's getting incredibly hard to have any respect what so ever for the idiot that is Lars Ulrich.
The same guy that loves to pump up the bass and highs in the mix, while scooping out the mids so it sounds like crap.
Problem is, Lars has suffered significant upper frequency hearing loss and has tinnitus, he wouldn't even be able to hear many of the offending frequencies being clipped to all hell.
People with hearing that bad shouldn't be trusted with a mix at all (no offense to anyone at PA who might be half deaf too), it really should go to a young guy who still has great hearing across audio frequency range.
And for christ sake, maybe Rick Rubin should have actually been a producer, rather than some guy that slacked off and just let the band do virtually what they wanted.
He's done some good production jobs in the past.... Death Magnetic seemed virtually devoid of his presence.




Edited by HughesJB4 - October 04 2008 at 07:18