 Thousands of Metallica fans have taken to the Internet to complain that the band's brutally awesome new album Death Magnetic is just too damn loud for its own good. Their main beef, which has been gaining some mainstream news attention as of late, is that the CD sounds tinny and sacrifices dynamic range - the difference between the soft and loud parts of songs - in favor of pumped-up volume.
(For some analysis of the issue, go here and here).
But Metallica co-manager Cliff Burnstein has claimed that 98 percent of listeners dig what they hear. "There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to," he added.
So far, more than 12,000 people have signed an online petition requesting that the band release a newly remixed or remastered version of the album. Not going to happen, says drummer Lars Ulrich, the first member of Metallica to comment publicly on the controversy. Here, in his own words, is the talkative drummer's take on the issue:
"Listen, there's nothing up with the audio quality. It's 2008, and that's how we make records. [Producer] Rick Rubin's whole thing is to try and get it to sound lively, to get it to sound loud, to get it to sound exciting, to get it to jump out of the speakers. Of course, I've heard that there are a few people complaining. But I've been listening to it the last couple of days in my car, and it sounds fuckin' smokin'.
"Somebody told me about [people complaining that the Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic sounds better]. Listen, what are you going to do? A lot of people say [the CD] sounds great, and a few people say it doesn't, and that's OK. You gotta remember, when we put out ...And Justice for All, people were going, 'What happened to these guys, this record? There's no bass on it. It sounds like it was recorded in a fuckin' garage on an eight-track.' And now ...And Justice for All is sort of the seminal Metallica record that supposedly influenced a whole generation of death-metal bands. The difference between back then and now is the Internet.
"The Internet gives everybody a voice, and the Internet has a tendency to give the complainers a louder voice. Listen, I can't keep up with this shit. Part of being in Metallica is that there's always somebody who's got a problem with something that you're doing: 'James Hetfield had something for breakfast that I don't like.' That's part of the ride.
"I will say that the overwhelming response to this new record has exceeded even our expectations as far as how positive it is. So I'm not gonna sit here and get caught up in whether [the sound] 'clips' or it doesn't 'clip.' I don't know what kind of stereos these people listen on. Me and James [Hetfield] made a deal that we would hang back a little and not get in the way of whatever Rick's vision was. That's not to put it on him - it's our record, I'll take the hit, but we wanted to roll with Rick's vision of how Metallica would sound."
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