Death Magnetic - Rediscovered

Yesterday evening, I rediscovered Metallica's newest album, Death Magnetic. When the album was released last September, I immediately rushed to the store to buy it - hey, it was a new Metallica album! How could I miss that?

I'm fairly sure many other metal fans thought similarly, and bought the new disc as well - and were just as disappointed as I was. The audio quality of Death Magnetic is, to say the least, heinous. On any playback device except PMPs, the songs sound raspy, distorted and clipped. It's tolerable on my iPod, but on my (high-end) home stereo, the album definitely provides a "sub-par" listening experience. By now, we know that this is due to the high compression used, the final goal being able to reach higher volume - a result of the so-called "loudness war" going on in the music industry.

Enter Guitar Hero 3. As part of the marketing campaign for Death Magnetic, the album was also released as a digital download for Activision's rock star simulator. Now, this wouldn't be very special, except that the audio quality of the GH3 tracks is decidedly different (read: better). For whatever reason, the songs are far less compressed, which improves the audio quality considerably (at the expense of volume). check out this comparison of the two different versions:



After witnessing the difference in quality, I just had to get my hands on the GH3 version of Death Magnetic. Rapidshare delivered as usual, and now I can finally enjoy Death Magnetic the way it's meant to be played (sorry Nvidia). In fact, I would advise any Metallica fan to do this - you deserve to hear this album in decent quality, and you won't be disappointed, trust me. The songs sound so much better, they're crisp, sharp and clear, a joy to listen to.

NOTE: The advice posted above does not reflect the opinion of Hooked Gamers, but only of the author himself. Don't be stupid, kids. Downloading copyrighted material is illlegal in most countries (not mine though - eat that, RIAA & Co.). If you do indeed download the GH3 rip of Death Magnetic, do it at your own risk. Just don't forget that Lars Ulrich will hate you for eternity...