Metallica pisses off its fanbase once again. Hitting a sour note earlier in the decade with some fans due to their stance on Napster and the peer-to-peer file-sharing scene rallied against by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the release of their latest album, Death Magnetic, calls quality control into question. The album which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 charts on its September 10th release became the first album to have all tracks simultaneously feature in a videogame. You could buy your Death Magnetic in the stores, through download, or through Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. What happened next in this evolution of music distribution ended up with traditional album buyers noticing a stark difference in sound quality than the videogame's version of the album—a much better version—and not being happy about it.
Before you click the clip (if you haven't already), read on further to get a fuller picture...
Another person not happy with these results is supposedly Ted Jensen, the head engineer at Sterling Studios who mastered the album, who appeared to write to fans on the Metallica.com forum with the regretful comment:
"I'm certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick-walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me, I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else."
The sound on the album version (both CD and LP) is clippy and distorted by many listeners' estimation (a result of poor mastering) while the Guitar Hero version is as Ian Shepard of Mastering Media Blog puts it "perfect". As a result, fans flock towards the Guitar Hero edition of the album songs to make backup copies. This has got to be a first. Priority production given to a videogame edition rather than the actual main playing disc. Really says something about where the future of the music industry is headed. "I want my MTV" looks like it may eventually be "I want my MVG". Music Video Game, that is.
Enough of my jawjacking. There's a clip from YouTube poster 'florixg' to compare the two versions for yourself. You decide which is which.
Thanks to NME.com and Mastering Media Blog through Kotaku.com.
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