OT: St. Anger Production - Metallica

[ran]

Ya gotta to hear this cd.
There will definitely be a lot said about it from critics.

Am I insane or is the Production on this cd such a breath of fresh air?

Lot of raw sounding tones, hiss, and noise, panned here and there. Off key vocals spots? Nice and raw. And that damn snare - it works for me.

Has to be intentional - and I dig it!

[joejackson]

Their last few albums had the life Pro Tooled out of them. I couldn't stand listening to that garbage.

If they are returning to Master of Puppets, it could only be a good thing.

[OgnKog]

I think they are NOT returning to Master.

It all sownds very, way too simple for a band that created songs like Blackened....

Anyway, in the MTV Icon Metallica Special there's a moment in where you can see them in the Studio mixing, or editing, or whatever and guess what: Pro f%%·$%ng Tools !!! Yeah, and in a very, very big screen, d a m n i want one of those !!

BTW, i'm sure i'll like it anyway.

Al.

[jamlaw]

It sounds horrible. That is honestly the worst sounding mix I have ever heard. Master of Puppets, Ride The Lightning, and Kill Em All are sound worlds better.

The drums are disgusting - the snare is not only buried but that ping is ridiculous, are those cymbals or trash can lids, the guitars are a mess. Seriously I have no clue what Bob Rock was thinking.

I don't get it at all!

I mean my mixes aren't the greatest since Im recording to an 001 and mixing on a Mackie. But really its sickening that a multimillion dollar studio would not produce a mix better than St. Anger.

DECONSTRUCT

[jgehring]

Originally posted by jamlaw:
[QB] It sounds horrible. That is honestly the worst sounding mix I have ever heard.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Ok, maybe not the worst I've ever heard, but I had a very similar reaction. I heard the "St. Anger" song on the radio on my way home from work & almost veered off the road. Holy suck. They should have consulted Ryan Greene if they wanted to try fast hardcore.

It's like a big clean vocal out front with a bed of zero-dynamic mushy crap underneath. James should just go back on the sauce if this is what he thinks is good when he's sober. Yuck.

Maybe someone told them the White Stripes were still hot so they tried to sound garage.

Wait! One good thing - none of us will have to bother saving up for Neve or Neumann if this becomes the new standard to compete with.

Nope - I got it - Metallica did two mixes - one crummy hack job for the radio (so nobody tapes it & steals the food from thier childrens' mouths) and then a good one that's only available on the new uberprotected plays-on-only-4-cd players-ever-made CD.

Whatever. Thanks for Ride the Lightning I guess.

[voodoosoup]

I have to mostly agree with jamlaw and jghering. I've been anxiously awaiting this one for a while. So I ran out and grabbed a copy on my lunch break. Got back in my car popped the disc in........hot holy ass batman.....this thing sound awful..... Who is this and what did they do with Metallica? Where are the crushing guitars and bad-ass Bob rock drums. It's sounds like they recorded it in my garage. And that damn snare........It's irritating as hell!!!!!! Where the hell is a Kirk Hammet solo when you need one!!!! It sounds slightly better on my home stereo......but not much. It jut totally all ofver the place. Is it me or is the kick buried in a lot of places? And the toms have no balls at all. Its' a wall of sonic mud. I wonder why they named it St. Anger? I'd be angry as hell too if my cd sounded like this. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[CCash]

I turned on the radio during the fast part, and was like, "What is this and how did this band get signed?" It's a mess... I couldn't make out what was going on, other than a fast polka beat that was way too upfront and some, er, vocals on top. Then I started to wonder if it was who I thought it was, and sure enough...

I have to give them credit at least for trying something different, even if it isn't necessarily good (to me).

[nekycram]

I thought it was just me. The radio version of the song sounds like it's be squashed all to hell. Then I saw the video and it sounded less squashed, mmmm radio.
Maybe they should have called the album:
Garage Days re-re-re-re-re revisited

I'll still buy it probably because I love good torture.

Later,
Ken

P.S.... What up with the double post.. Sorry about that....

[metaltim]

I already posted in the PC forum.. here is what I said to those guys..::::

You are one 4 things:

You like all of metallica's work:
You like old metallica (KEA up to AJFA)
You like new metallica (black to reload)
You never liked metallica (don't lie)

I think that should include everyone..

well the outcame is the same for everyone.

This CD doesn't sound like old metallica
It doesn't sound like new metallica
It doesn't sound a whole lot like metallica as you or I may know them, sooo..

spend the $9.99 (best buy), you get a DVD with the CD,

and check it out. It is different than anything they have ever done, so act like you've never heard of them if you have some sort of issue with that, and start from scratch.

To sum it up,
alot of it is fast, with multiple uses of double kick drumming (think of battery, blackened tempo)

James' voice is much different now than it ever has been. (its been 6 years since a release of original material)

The low end is VERY present and up front..
there are only a small handfull parts that are clean tone..

The mixing is very "raw", almost that of a garage band sound.. (just between the snare and kicks, there are many times where the levels are very noticably different)

There are no solos.

They have song structures with many parts and many different tempos, similar to the epics of MOP and AJFA. (in other words, not verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, verse, chorus, fade.. like many off of black)

6 of 11 of the songs are over 7 minutes. all the others clock in between 5 and 6.


that's about it, Im not going to say it's good, although IMHO, it is, because thats not very helpful to anyone.

so i hope you decide to go check it out.
a cd and DVD for 10 bux, you can't hardly go wrong.
of course the DVD is just them playing through every song, in order, in there reharsal space/studio..

so if you truly don't like it, the dvd thrown in really has no value to you..

peace, and see you at the shows this summer..


SOOOOO with that said, hear me out. When I first heard the title track, i was in 'agreeance' with most of you here. Is it my ears playing tricks... no, it sounds weird.
well guess what, after listening to all the songs 10-15 times now (all the songs have been available to metclub members for a couple of days now)

It sounds so REAL. I don't know what happened, but it totally makes since. I think it now sounds better than ever, exactly what they were raving about...

Try it for yourself, listen to the songs, make yourself. all your complaints, I shared, and now they are no longer.
even the tin can snare, it sounds so different than initial impression.

thats all i can say..

metaltim

[h'biki]

Haven't heard the new album but until the black album (and still thereafter but less so) Lars' drum production has always kinda sucked. Especially his snare. Tinny and weak. No surprises here, then.

He's the Ringo of the metal world.