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Metallica returning to their roots with Hardwired .... To self destruct (1 Viewer)

Bryan^H

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Yeah, Of all the new Metallica songs since the release of the "Black" album in 91' "Hardwired" sounds closest to actual Metallica music from the 80's. Like"Fight Fire with Fire", very angry, and unrelenting. Even Heitfield's voice seems to be dialed back to a much earlier decade.
I can't wait to hear the rest of the album in November.
this year has been pretty great for Metal fans with new albums from both Megadeth, and Anthrax. The new Metallica should be the icing on the cake.
 

Ruz-El

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I'll check this one out. I just hope the album sound good. Metallica are notorious for crushing the music in the loudness wars.
 

YanMan

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I'll check this one out. I just hope the album sound good. Metallica are notorious for crushing the music in the loudness wars.

Well to be fair, the only album of theirs that suffers from brickwalling is Death Magnetic (but is WAS crushed so badly that it became the poster child for bad mastering related to loudness wars).

Black Album, Load, Reload, and Garage Inc. are are some of the best-sounding hard rock/metal records ever, though, so I think it is stretch to say they are notorious for it.

I did just see an interview snippet with Robert Trujillo today where he says he is excited not only about the music on this new album but also on how good it sounds, so hopefully this is an indication that they learned their lesson from the (deserved) flak they got for how awful the mastering was on Death Magnetic. Hopefully the good mastering will stay intact all the way through the chain to the final CD master (yes, I'm still a CD guy).

Also, the version of Death Magnetic on iTunes is a new master with no clipping-induced distortion and reportedly sounds MUCH better than the original CD release (I cannot personally verify as I don't do iTunes), but enough people at the Steve Hoffman forum and the Metallica forum have confirmed that I am inclined to believe it.
 

Ruz-El

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Well to be fair, the only album of theirs that suffers from brickwalling is Death Magnetic (but is WAS crushed so badly that it became the poster child for bad mastering related to loudness wars).

Black Album, Load, Reload, and Garage Inc. are are some of the best-sounding hard rock/metal records ever, though, so I think it is stretch to say they are notorious for it.

I think that's on first release, we'll have to see what happens when they get remastered. Apparently the new boxsets of "Kill 'em All" and "Ride the Lightning" are crushed, as is the hires download of S&M available on their site. DR averages ranging from 6-8, which is crushed. Original Ride the Lightning CD DR was 13 according to the DR Database. Of course, low DR doesn't automatically mean it sounds bad, but it usually a good sign.

And of course, if the new album has low DR, you could argue it's intentional since that's how the band wanted it mastered. I presume they are in control of the music. how else would Justice get released with no bass? :P
 

Aaron Silverman

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Also, the version of Death Magnetic on iTunes is a new master with no clipping-induced distortion and reportedly sounds MUCH better than the original CD release (I cannot personally verify as I don't do iTunes), but enough people at the Steve Hoffman forum and the Metallica forum have confirmed that I am inclined to believe it.

I remember when DM came out, the Guitar Hero(!) versions of the songs lacked the absurd compression present on the CD master. People were ripping them from the game instead of listening to the CD because the game sounded so much better.

Hopefully they'll get this one right. Musically speaking, DM was easily my favorite Metallica album since Justice, but I never actually bought it because the CD was so noticeably muddy. (I did play the game, though. :) )
 

Rhett_Y

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I will wait for the full album to give it a full review, but so far, their music has just been blah from what I have heard so far.
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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Well, I listened to it a couple of times. Being a long-time Metallica fan who's been disillusioned by their latter career choices, I was heartened to hear what might be something more akin of Master of Puppets kicking off the first track. However, by the end, I was left with the following impression of this album:

Metallica, along with a bass player, played several songs using their instruments.

That's about all I can say about this one. In a sense, I almost think St. Anger is better just because that at least gave me something to get pissed over — the album itself. This one doesn't bother to arouse any passions whatsoever.
 

Bryan^H

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It is rather strange that their thrash metal offerings from the 80's particularly Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, And Justice For all were just so catchy. From beginning to end absolute perfection.

It seems they don't strive for that anymore. I was really let down by Hardwired. Just like Death Magnetic, I took away a few songs that were passable, but nothing memorable.
 

Sam Posten

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greggor

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I consider myself a huge pre-1991 Metallica fan. Another words I haven't loved anything they've released since AJFA. With that being said I love this new album. It's very well done and is one of my favorite Metallica albums. It's mixed extremely well and has a nice rich sound to it.
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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At least we've moved past mixing out the bass player completely, or banging on metal chairs, or fully saturating the dynamic range during mastering.
 

Aaron Silverman

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I haven't listened to much of the album yet. . .I pray that Jonathan's post above mine was not sarcasm.
 

Jonathan Perregaux

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I was at my company's Christmas luncheon yesterday. It was a Spanish restaurant and they had classical guitar music playing. I happen to be sitting next to someone who is also a fan of metal when we both hear strains of "Orion." We're like, "Saaaay... that's Metallica!" I like "Puppets!!" and start head-banging to this gentle rendition, lovingly plucked on some acoustic guitar.
 

YanMan

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OK, after having lived with this album for about a month now, I must say I think it is quite excellent... a much stronger showing than I had expected based on how Death Magnetic turned out.

I will say I did have the same initial reaction as Jonathan and Russel after a first listen.. nothing stood out, a bit blah, etc.

But after a few more listens this album really started to grow on me, and now I feel it is easily one of the top 5 Metallica albums for me. The only song I really have not warmed to is Murder One.

While the dynamic range of the CD is low by audiophile standards (average DR of 6), it is better than Death Magnetic's atrocious DR of 3 and does not suffer the same painful clipping. The mix sounds fine to me and does not cause the ear fatigue that Death Magnectic does.

Here is my album ranking to help anyone decide if they want to take my opinion seriously or disregard it as the ravings of a lunatic:

1. MoP
2. Black Album
3. AJFA
4. Load
5. H...tSD
6. RTL
7. ReLoad
8. Garage Inc.
9. St. Anger
10. KEA
11. DM
 

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