Metallica Defend 'Death Magnetic' Sound Quality

After fans question it...

by Jason Gregory
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Photo by: Carsten Windhorst
filed in: Metal

Metallica Defend 'Death Magnetic' Sound Quality

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Metallica's co-manager Cliff Burnstein has defended the sound quality of the band's new album, 'Death Magnetic', after it was criticised by fans.

The album, which has sold over a million copies worldwide in less than two weeks, has been described as too loud on some Metallica forums.

Fans criticisms of the Rick Rubin produced effort have focussed mainly on the CD version, which they claim doesn't sound as clean as the edition that's available via the video game Guitar Hero.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Burnstein tried to dampen the criticism, claiming that 98% of listeners have voiced a an "overwhelmingly positive” response.

"There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to,” he added.

But Ted Jensen, who mastered the 'Death Magnetic', has already distanced himself from the album.

In a message to fans, he wrote: “I'm not proud to be associated with this one.”

What do you think of the quality? Post your thoughts by filling out the comment form below.

Become a member of Gigwise and your comments will appear automatically.

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Love the album...the songs are great, however, the sound quality is not. At first I thought that my headphones were just old and broken. Then I listened to the album through my studio headphones, and it was still there. The album sounds distorted at times, which is a bit disappointing but not enough to ruin the album for me. I just listen to it at a lower volume and rock out. Plus, I’m sure that these songs are going to sound great live.
~ by Funkywanderer 9/25/2008
I bought the CD the day it came out, and I love every second of it. I cant even look at the Metallica message boards anymore. Its just a bunch of fanboys who claim they hear clipping on the album. I havent picked up on any defects in my copy, and I havent stopped listening to it since. Death Magnetic is a masterpiece. Go out and buy it!
~ by unholyttb 9/25/2008
Metallica has drop the H-Bomb in the Loudness War, it’s a nice contribution to kill music.
~ by John Cadmen 9/25/2008
My first experience with the strange sound quality was with the streams made available before the album release, which I assumed was a result of some sort of download deterrent to preserve record sales. After buying the CD, the quality is not improved. Track 8 @ 4:30 - perfect illustrated example of the garbled sound. Bass and low E palm mutes are distorted - horribly. The album is awesome, it just wasn’t recorded or mastered properly. Compression errors perhaps? Audio skips in places
~ by Matt the Metclub Member 9/25/2008
FANBOY??? Only REAL metallica Fans Care on how it sounds,and it’s BAD,so your the Fanboy you fly by night EMO metallica fan
~ by FIXTHE CD 9/25/2008
Yeah yeah the quality isnt the Black Album Bob Rock produced perfection, but I sure as hell wont sign a petiton to get them to remaster it. It just isnt enough to kill the album, songs are great and performances were awesome. Remember Justice? No bass and its still a great fuckin disc.
~ by Lowry666 9/25/2008
Yeah yeah the quality isnt the Black Album Bob Rock produced perfection, but I sure as hell wont sign a petiton to get them to remaster it. It just isnt enough to kill the album, songs are great and performances were awesome. Remember Justice? No bass and its still a great fuckin disc.
~ by Lowry666 9/25/2008
Might just be the best Metallica album ever. Sounds horrable!! How could such a huge band let a million copys of this get out, its hard to swallow.
~ by Josh 9/25/2008
I remember when Metallica had talent and integrity
~ by Metal is for gender confused youth 9/25/2008
I own the CD, and also downloaded the Guitar Hero verison. I much prefer the CD, it has more kick and oomph and raw energy. Who cares about a tiny bit of distortion here and there. Metallica ROCKS and Death Magnetic is the album of the year!!!
~ by dorian 9/25/2008
I can hear the clipping on the CD, but to me it’s an incredibly minor flaw that isn’’t worth anywhere near as much attention as it’’s getting. Classic case of a mountain borne from a molehill.
~ by Danimal 9/25/2008
It`s really sad than I give you my money Metallica. I did not steal your album, I did buy it and ? Reward is crappy distorted sound.Shame on you.
~ by Tomas 9/29/2008
The new album is flawed in the production department because it clips all the time. I listen to it in the morning while I am getting ready to go to work and the volume is set to 1 out of 10. One (1), I repeat. The distortion is there all the time. My speakers are PSB Image 4T bought in 2000. My electronics driving the speakers are NAD. On my ipod, listening through my iGrado headphones, distortion is obvious. Definitely, my equipment is not lying and the producer made a mistake here.
~ by Morris 10/8/2008
The first time I noticed the "clipping" was in the pre release video of
~ by Kevin 10/20/2008

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