September 25, 2008

  • Metallica recently released their newest studio album of new material; Death Magnetic. As is always the case with this band, and probably more so than other bands out there, the metal/rock community of fans has picked, poked, prodded the album as much as they can, so that they can judge it and proclaim how it compares to the first four albums. Much to the chagrin of the "Metalli-haters" out there, the general consensus is that it is a good-great album, that actually holds up well with the very very high pedestal that people have placed Metallica's first four albums in. Some people (like myself) have gone as far to say that "Death Magnetic" should have been the album that came out after "...And Justice For All."

    All is not perfect though, as there is a very common complaint about their newest album, and that "the drums sound too loud," or that it "gets too distorted." Many are quick to blame Metallica for those problems, and I would say that those people are just a bunch of ass-hats for trying to put complete fault on them. The majority of people in the music industry knows what's at fault. A great minority of people who follow music knows what's at fault. It's "the Loudness War" folks, and it strikes again. In fact, the first time I listened through Death Magnetic, I noticed how it was affected by the Loudness War, but just quietly accepted my disappointment on the fact that I've heard this problem with so many other albums out there that it was almost not even worth noting. This problem has been prevalent in the music industry for quite some time now, and it figures that it'll take the scrutiny that Metallica usually gets to bring this out in the public again.

    Don't know what The Loudness War is? You can find out what it is at turnmeup.org which also has loads of articles linked in it that further talks about it. Afterward, you may just notice how much this problem has been a part of your music collection all these times.


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