Metallica Death Magnetic

Previous album St. Anger was crap, only 2 songs where barely ok to listen to. You need to see the DVD Somekind of Monster to understand why it sounds so crappy. They were not Metallica they where employers going to work each day and their boss was Bob Rock.

Having listened to My Apocalypse and Cyanide on Youtube, the anticipation was great with Death Magnetic. So on September 12th I got my copy for 5$ hehe.

First the box is really nice with the coffin cut out. But that pretty much stop there.

The sound?… Well you can read the thousands of threads on the Loudness Wars and my own article from 2006 (didn’t I told you about that long time ago?) Why the RIAA can suck my dick while I shit!. It sounds like crap like all other CD for the past 15+ years. I already felt rip off of my 5$.

If you still doubt it’s not the recording company fucking you good, below is the waveform of song My Apocalypse, in a comparison: top is the regular CD version, bottom is the downloadable version for Guitar Hero III. So yes they can do CD that sound like they are supposed to, but they think you are dumb shit that can’t buy decent audio gear or won’t care how it sounds on their iCrap mp3 player.

Metallica Waveform

Bands have been businesses since the 70s with the Rolling Stones and Kiss. Don’t forget Lars was one of the assholes that told you that copying his music is stealing. And because of us the will all starve and become poor. While they and many others like U2 and the Stones where incorporating their bands in fiscal paradises making sure they won’t pay more than 1% or 2% in taxes on their cd, merchandises and shows revenues. So no I don’t feel bad not buy albums that sound like craps that can’t be played loud because you think it will help you sell more albums and make you richer if you sound louder.

Nice box and shitty mastering, what’s next…? SOLO oh yes they got guitar solos, and maybe too much of them: on My Apocalypse solo is over one minute and totally screw-up the beat of the song. It’s like Kirk thought he had something to prove. Man your good, solos are nice when they fit on a song.

It was supposed to be And Justice For All with new modern touches, well it sounds more like St Anger redone with a couple of old riff and solos. Some songs changed so often of beat, riff and tempo you simply don’t know what song you are listening to.

It was supposed to be a complete return to their roots though I think they simply used a few old riffs on some new shitty songs. There are elements in their songs of the Old days with a new sound to them or maybe a sort of mixture of everything they’ve done. It gets confusing and let’s faces it: NO ONE LIKE THE NEW SOUND AND SHIT!

In resume it sounds better than the previous 3 albums but it’s a melting pot of old and new riffs more often inside the same songs that sound like a jamming sessions of peoples that want to sound old Metallica but can’t resist playing their new riffs. It’s some kind of monsters that want to wake up but have been asleep for so long that he can’t stand up. Rock and metal are feeling you don’t create a song based on the trend of the moment like a pop star its feeling and expressing what you are, a Rocker! Please James call Dave Mustain and ask him how he have been doing so many albums that sounds good while you still can’t make a decent one in 5 years.

Posted: October 5th, 2008 by Kat Path
Filled Under: Rock'N'Roll All Nite, What Grinds My Gears
With Tags: album, assholes, bob rock, fiscal paradises, guitar hero, metallica, mp3, rocker, rolling stones, somekind of monster, st anger
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I’ve been a fan of NightWish ever since I got to listen to Wishmaster. It’s been a few years and well they became my favourite band ever.

I loved Tarja’s classical voice and their amazing sound. When the band fired Tarja through an open letter, I was thorn. I understood their position and decision and well part of me agreed with them for it. I mean, when you are part of a band, you can’t just show up when you feel like it. You need to be involved in the creative process and all.

That far I was ok with their position but I was sad that this amazing voice that made me adore the band so much was gone. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to accept another signer.

I was expecting something kind of like when Peter Gabriel was replaced by Phil Collins in Genessis. Peter’s fans never really liked Phil and vice versa.

Still I waited anxiously for the new single to come out and the new album to see what it would sound like.

In may they announced that the new signer was going to be Anette Ozlon. I liked Alisson Avenue so it wasn’t so bad. But their voices and styles are so different. How would this turn out? I couldn’t decide.

Finally the new album is out. I waited so long for Sept 28th 07 to listen to it. I’ll be honest it took some getting use to but I love them more then ever.

I am glad they chose Anette. I liked the fact that they didn’t try to replace Tarja by a look alike or a copy cat, they went with someone that shared their views and overall would benefit their common interests.

What pleased me the most with the new album is that they have the same sound. You know right away that it is NightWish.

Looks like afterall despite the fact that Tarja was the signer, she wasn’t the band.

Long live NightWish.

Posted: October 4th, 2007 by sonicvamp
Filled Under: Hobbies, Rock'N'Roll All Nite
With Tags: album, amaranth, annette olzon, dark passion play, favorite band, new album, nightwish, tarja, video
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Back in the 70’s there was about a handful of styles. Some evolved in the 80’s but still we could get around saying we liked Rock/Metal/Classic/Pop, .. I think you get the drift. Nowadays there are as many styles as there are artist.. Ok not that much but still, styles defined themselves in various ways. Just think about Metal, we have the good old Heavy Metal. Now we have new adjectives like power, speed, black, death, …

Though it is a good thing in itself for the industry, we sometimes end up with a multitude of artist that despite a few differences sounds about the same.

Rarely can we really come across a band that we can say just by the 1st stroke of a guitar, the 1st drum beat how they are.

More and more artists are becoming icon’s for the wrong reasons. Because they look good and because they will sell. That’s marketting all right.

Thankfully, I came across a band that have all it takes. They have the will, they have an amazing sound and something that seems to be so often forgotten, THEY HAVE TALENT.

This band is A NEW SHADE. Band members, Carrie Davidson – Vocals, Tyler Eisenhart – Guitar, Tommy O’Brien – Drums and Aj Abdulshafi-Bass, are in their early 20’s and already they have acheived a sound and style that so may will want to reach but never will. They all come from different music background and uses those influences as an asset. This allows them to really have their own style, their own sound.

Musically speaking, they are really great but another aspect so often minimized by other’s makes them truely unique. They really value their fans. Yes everyone says that but seldom really do.

Too often bands will rely on marketting firm to dictate the public what we should and shouldn’t listen to. Telling us what is good or not. Well they don’t.

They really value their fans and have a vision of music that seemed lost till now.

Metal is still going stong and with bands like A NEW SHADE, there really is hope for all of us Head Bangner.

Take a look for yourself, make your own opinion and be the juge.

For my part I am trhilled I got to discover the band and hope you’ll share my interest in them.

http://www.myspace.com/anewshade

Posted: October 4th, 2007 by sonicvamp
Filled Under: Hobbies, Rock'N'Roll All Nite
With Tags: a new shade, band members, heavy metal, music background
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Dark Passion Play

Nightwish release their brand new album Dark Passion Play. It marks the beginning of a new era with new vocalist Annette Olzon onboard.

For the fans the album sound 100% Nightwish but for the vocal part well it’s up to you to deciede. For my part I found it a fairy good album but not as good as their previous release Once that was probably their best album ever. The first single Amaranth that you can see the video below is the best song on the album. Only future will tell if the vocaliste choice paid off.

Nightwish – Amaranth

Nightwish – Bye Bye Beautiful

Posted: September 28th, 2007 by Kat Path
Filled Under: Hobbies, Rock'N'Roll All Nite
With Tags: album, amaranth, annette olzon, dark passion play, favorite band, new album, nightwish, tarja, video
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This week someone ask me why I don’t buy anymore audio CD. Well because they sound crappy. The story goes that around 1990 the RIAA decided to implement a regulation asking audio CD to be normalized (and copy protected but that is another topic). What does that mean? It means now audio CD sound like crap and you can’t play them as loud as we used to in the 80′s. Why did they done that? Well first they are stupid, second they wanted to correct a few problems they had like having volume going up and down between songs. And they found out that normalizing song allow them to keep the same volume throught out the album and at the same time increased the gain (volume) without having the listener cranking up the volume.

Below is a spectrum view of the Poison’s song “Nothin’ But A Good Time” from the 1988 album “Open Up and Say… Ahh!”. Download a 2 minute sample of the song.

"Nothin' But A Good Time" from the 1988 Album

Below is a spectrum view of the Poison’s song “Nothin’ But A Good Time” from the 1996 album “Greatest Hits 1986-1996″. Download a 2 minute sample of the song.

"Nothin' But A Good Time" from the 1996 Album

Same song but with and without normalization, you see the difference now? Listen to it, download the waves tracks. Make sure your wave and master volume under windows are about 75%, not more. Playback the “1988 original” song. Use you speaker volume to increase the volume. When you’re used to the song, don’t change your volume and playback the “normalized 1996″ version of the song.

You ever wander why the volume of the ads on tv are always louder then the movie you are listening? Now you know. Same goes for the song on the radio. But normalizing have a price, sound quality, you loose all the range of frequency music normaly provide for one flat feedback noise. When you put a cd made after 1990-1995 on your sound system it sound not too bad but if you want power and listen to it as loud as a fuck you get noise and no more rich powerfull music.

You want to pay for that crap? I don’t!

Posted: June 16th, 2006 by Kat Path
Filled Under: Rock'N'Roll All Nite, What Grinds My Gears
With Tags: crap, douchebags, normalized, poison, riaa, song, sound quality, stupid, stupidity, suck my dick
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