Metallica - St. Anger
Posted by: RoyleBlue on 08 June 2003
Just got it - love the music but anyone else find the sound quality to be pretty awful?
Posted on: 08 June 2003 by Chris Bell
I agree. The recording quality of St. Anger is poor. Dynamics are lacking, and everything sounds compressed. I wonder if it has some funky copy protection which limits sound quality or perhaps the US record company just does not care about quality manufacturing. I may look for a euro pressing on LP...those pressings tend to be better.
Chris Bell
Chris Bell
Posted on: 08 June 2003 by Frizzlefry
Chris
If what I hear is right, then you'll have a two week wait for the vinyl. The pressing has a 14 day delay compaired with the C.D.
Everyone
Yes, a weird mix. But was it done on purpose to make them sound 'old school'; to give it that raw, unproduced feel like the garage metal band they were, rather than the multi millionaires they became ? Who knows, but surely it's about the music, not the mix. After all I'd not listen to 80% of my collection if I did so on sound/recording quality.
' Groovy '
If what I hear is right, then you'll have a two week wait for the vinyl. The pressing has a 14 day delay compaired with the C.D.
Everyone
Yes, a weird mix. But was it done on purpose to make them sound 'old school'; to give it that raw, unproduced feel like the garage metal band they were, rather than the multi millionaires they became ? Who knows, but surely it's about the music, not the mix. After all I'd not listen to 80% of my collection if I did so on sound/recording quality.
' Groovy '
Posted on: 09 June 2003 by RoyleBlue
Agree Frizzlefry - that is what I said, but nowadays there should be no excuse for a pretty poor recording from a big name band even if they are trying to sound 'old school'.
Posted on: 09 June 2003 by miles
It does sound very badly produced - muddy guitars and tincan drums but I'm sure it must be the sound they were going for.
Since they have had Bob Rock producing (black album and after) the quality (imho) has been excellent and something which, especially with the black album, Metallica have seemed to be quite proud of. Since then many fans have been slating Metallica,m especially Bob Rock for producing such slickly produced albums. Now, if you read the Metallica forum all teh fans are complaining about the poor production!! Guess they just can't win!
Since they have had Bob Rock producing (black album and after) the quality (imho) has been excellent and something which, especially with the black album, Metallica have seemed to be quite proud of. Since then many fans have been slating Metallica,m especially Bob Rock for producing such slickly produced albums. Now, if you read the Metallica forum all teh fans are complaining about the poor production!! Guess they just can't win!
Posted on: 15 June 2003 by NB
Brilliant album, crap production.
On my car hi-fi, fabtastic. On the Naim its a mess.
The Naim opens it up and shows how badly it has been put together. Its hard to follow whats going on, there's no seperation of instruments. Its one long barage of noise, which is probably what Metalica were aiming for.
This would have worked better on vinyl.
Still an enjoyable CD though.
Regards
NB
On my car hi-fi, fabtastic. On the Naim its a mess.
The Naim opens it up and shows how badly it has been put together. Its hard to follow whats going on, there's no seperation of instruments. Its one long barage of noise, which is probably what Metalica were aiming for.
This would have worked better on vinyl.
Still an enjoyable CD though.
Regards
NB
Posted on: 15 June 2003 by bjorne
I think they are well past their best. For some excellent old Metallica: on kazaa there is a video, Master of puppets(Live shit Seattle). Check it out, it is awsome....
Posted on: 16 June 2003 by NB
NB agrees with John wholeheartedly!
Posted on: 16 June 2003 by matthewr
The sound quality is apparently so bad even Pitchfork noticed. They slated it and gave it a 0.8 which is pretty low even by their often catty statndards.
"Metal kings' supposed return-to-form shows them, in fact, in the worst form of their entire career. Overprocessed, overproduced and studio-dead to the point of incomprehensibility, St. Anger sets the foremost standard for how not to make a metal record.
...
Lars Ulrich had taken the return to "real Metal" quite literally, playing a drumset consisting of steel drums, aluminum toms, programmed double kicks, and a broken church bell. The kit's high-end clamor ignored the basic principles of drumming-- timekeeping.
Fittingly, Ulrich's scrapyard racket rang senselessly like quickening, imploding industry under filtered, stream-of-cliché riffing. The gimmick overwhelmed entire songs, chiming hollowly over all else. Meanwhile, Hetfield and Hammett's guitars underwent more processing than cat food. When they both speedstrum through "St. Anger", and most other movements, H&H seem to overwhelm each other with different, terrible noise. A bevy of pedals-- including the decidedly un-metal wah-wah-- jingle conspicuously like a massive charm bracelet... I mean, a string of skulls. A string of iron skulls.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/metallica/st-anger.shtml
"Metal kings' supposed return-to-form shows them, in fact, in the worst form of their entire career. Overprocessed, overproduced and studio-dead to the point of incomprehensibility, St. Anger sets the foremost standard for how not to make a metal record.
...
Lars Ulrich had taken the return to "real Metal" quite literally, playing a drumset consisting of steel drums, aluminum toms, programmed double kicks, and a broken church bell. The kit's high-end clamor ignored the basic principles of drumming-- timekeeping.
Fittingly, Ulrich's scrapyard racket rang senselessly like quickening, imploding industry under filtered, stream-of-cliché riffing. The gimmick overwhelmed entire songs, chiming hollowly over all else. Meanwhile, Hetfield and Hammett's guitars underwent more processing than cat food. When they both speedstrum through "St. Anger", and most other movements, H&H seem to overwhelm each other with different, terrible noise. A bevy of pedals-- including the decidedly un-metal wah-wah-- jingle conspicuously like a massive charm bracelet... I mean, a string of skulls. A string of iron skulls.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/metallica/st-anger.shtml