METALLICA Manager: 'Death Magnetic' Sound Complainers Are A Tiny Minority

September 25, 2008

Ethan Smith of the Wall Street Journal reports that some fans are complaining that METALLICA's new album, "Death Magnetic", has a thin, brittle sound that's the result of the band's attempts in the studio to make it as loud as possible. "Sonically it is barely listenable," reads one fan's online critique. Thousands have signed an online petition urging the band to re-mix the album and release it again.

METALLICA and the album's producer, Rick Rubin, declined to comment. Cliff Burnstein, METALLICA's co-manager, says the complainers are a tiny minority. He says 98% of listeners are "overwhelmingly positive," adding: "There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to."

But the critics have inadvertently recruited a key witness: Ted Jensen, the album's "mastering engineer," the person responsible for the sonic tweaks that translate music made in a studio into a product for mass duplication and playback by consumers. Responding to a METALLICA fan's email about loudness, Mr. Jensen sent a sympathetic reply that concluded: "Believe me, I'm not proud to be associated with this one." The fan posted the message on a METALLICA bulletin board and it quickly drew attention.

Mr. Jensen regrets his choice of words but not the sentiment. "I'm not sure I would have said quite the same thing if I was posting it to the bulletin board," he says. But "it's certainly the way I feel about it."

Read the entire report from the Wall Street Journal.

"Broken Beat & Scarred" album version:

"Broken Beat & Scarred" unofficial remix using nothing but **six** separated/extracted Guitar Hero tracks:

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