12 September 2008

Metallica's "Death Magnetic": Clips on both CD and Vinyl

Much hay has been raised about the sound quality of this album, although interestingly enough, none of it has been from mainstream music journalism (or even the blogosphere) yet. The mastering engineer has even disowned the sound quality of the record, passing the buck onto the mixing engineer, and ultimately, the band itself.

The MP3 prerelease leaks have been so commonplace (and so bad sounding) that a lot of people are buying the 2LP and 5LP versions thinking that they are getting superior sound quality. However, judging by the large amount of clipping still extant on the vinyl, they probably won't:

Image credits: hdsemaj on stevehoffman.tv. Original post.

Subjectively, some people are reporting that the warmer sound of the record is dampening the clipping somewhat, but really, that's damning with faint praise.

My recommendation is to spend as little money as possible on the release until they sell a better master. Metallica.com is streaming the album for free right now. Beyond that, buy the MP3s. Personally, I smell a rat.

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