Mustaine: “I think mine’s better. And that’s not a dig at (Metallica); it’s just how I feel. And I know that they’ve got a lot of records that are better than the stuff I’ve put out, but not all of it, and certainly not the stuff that we made together.”
To my ears, Metallica’s Death Magnetic is one of the best metal albums to come out in years. Mustaine and Megadeth may be good, but I’m not sure Endgame carries the same exact weight as Metallica.
Why does Mustaine constantly have to measure himself against Metallica? You would think that after his obsession with the band came to a head in the movie Some Kind of Monster he would move on. Evidently not.
British music fans are a dedicated following. Kirk agrees:
“There’s not much that gets past the British eye, or ear, for that matter… British audiences are just so great to play for.”
Kirk also mentions how it was Rick Rubin who persuaded the band to sound more like they did in the 80s for Death Magnetic (watch video below for more).
Good work again, Rick! I thought that would be a day that would never come.
Why would a musician download his own music illegally? Only one answer to that: he’s curious how much of it is out there, and/or what quality it is.
Drummer ala Metallica did the illegal download route before the release of the last album. Lars Ulrich tells VH1:
“I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download Death Magnetic for free, it’s me. I sat there one night at my house with about six of my friends and a bottle of wine. We found it – this was like two or three days after Death Magnetic leaked. I was like, ‘You know what? I’ve gotta try this.’ So we sat there, and thirty minutes later, I had Death Magnetic in my computer. It was kind of bizarre.”
The strangest of this little truth is that Lars Ulrich thought this was all bizarre. No offense, but you’re living in the past, brother. Of course listeners can probably get stuff before the album release. The question is: how good is the quality? Usually, it ‘s not that great. If it’s a band that is worth the music, you have buy the CD or the album. It’s that simple. And that’s exactly what I did with Death Magnetic. I couldn’t settle for some crappy downloaded MP3s.
I got an email from a friend of mine who frequents this blog. He wanted me to note that Robert Plant & Alison Krauss were nominated for a Grammy for Best Album, a top honor. Yeah, I heard. And there it was, in B&W, on the Grammy site:
Please Read The Letter Robert Plant & Alison Krauss T Bone Burnett, producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer
He knows how I feel about this. Good for Robert Plant. But now he’ll NEVER reunite and reform Led Zeppelin. His head is in the Krauss creative game now. That part bums me (and many other fans) out.
The best thing I found about the Grammy nominations were the following:
• Best Long Form Music Video (For video album packages consisting of more than one song or track. Award to the Artist and to the Video Director/Producer of at least 51% of the total playing time.)
Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who The Who Paul Crowder & Murray Lerner, video directors; Murray Lerner, Robert Rosenberg & Nigel Sinclair, video producers
[Universal Home Entertainment]
• Best Rock Album (Vocal or Instrumental. Includes Hard Rock and Metal)
Death Magnetic Metallica
[Warner Bros.
• Best Metal Performance (For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, with vocals. Singles or Tracks only.)
The thing I don’t understand is how Judas Priest got voted for both Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. I never understood the categorization process with the Grammys. One time Jethro Tull had Best Metal Performance.
AC/DC was also recognized for (possibly) the weakest (but most commercial) song on Black Ice: “Rock N Roll Train.” And there are at least three or four better songs on Metallica’s Death Magnetic than “My Apocalypse” forBest Metal Performance.
But, as always, I’ll watch the show. I just hope Kanye’s not there. He never mixes well with Award shows.
musicradar.com (“the place for music makers”), for instance, claims:
“Mastering engineers sacrificing dynamic range in the pursuit of louder and louder sounding CD”… and “Death Magnetic has taken this a step too far.”
…”the kick and snare drum seemed to be audibly clipping, along with some of the palm-muted guitar parts.”
and on and on.
Sorry sound-geeks at musicradar.com, maybe I was banging my head too hard to notice any of this.
The argument carried onto internet forums. Finally, Ted Jensen, the head engineer at Sterling Sound who mastered the Death Magnetic checked in:
“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.”
To tell you the truth… as someone who likes the album, I really don’t care.
Screw Chinese Democracy. I really don’t care if it ever comes out. And if the Axl Rose opus does come out this year, I doubt it will be as powerful as Death Magnetic, Metallica’s jump back into the fold.
Death Magnetic is so good, it has actually gotten me excited about a band I had given up on. I was bored of them with the Loaded albums, pissed at them when they turned on their downloading fans, embarassed for them after watching Some Kind of Monster, and confused by them while listening to St. Anger.
This is the real Metallica. And I can say I am proud to be listening to Metallica once again.
Buy it. It’s worth every cent. Give Lars a break and don’t illegally download it. (;
The fan in question, 37 year old Mick Cassidy, made a vow to not shave until Metallica released an album. Seems like he was getting discouraged (I would, too, after watching Some Kind of Monster) and he was making a Gandhi-esque plea to the band to record. Finally, when the new album Death Magnetic came out (five years after the last one), James Hetfield shaved the beard for Mick (above) at the launch party.
There are those who are shocked how Metallica has become so fan-friendly of late. I mean, they have excelled with this angle in promoting the new album, Death Magnetic. And it’s more than just promotion. They are really embracing their fans.
Some are surprised because we are not far removed from the time when drummer Lars Ulrich and Metallica turned in their own fans for what the band considered to be piracy (or known to fans as simply file sharing).
But I’m not shocked by the friendly fan embrace. What shocked me was when they took the tough stance on file sharing. That shocked me. Afterall, it was guys like Lars Ulrich who used to trade music demos and tapes of NWOBHM bands with other music fans and metal pen pals all over the world. Lars, for instance, was the ultimate fan. He, basically, file shared… but on a smaller scale. I know because I was doing the same thing at the time.
And it is Lars, especially, that has drawn a lot of criticism for his actions. But I think he is the man behind all this recent good cheer. The fan-friendly embrace is more than promotion of new material or schmoozing the fans back. This is the REAL Lars. In essence, this is the REAL Metallica. Welcome back.
Lars may have a huge ego — that can be inevitable with any rock star — but I have always liked the guy. Not just for his solid drumming or band leadership but because he is a true fan. He loves music. Lars is one of my favorite rock musicians because he is one of us.
Visit Metallica’s site and see for yourself. But while you’re at it, check out the band’s video channel on YouTube, Metallica TV (see Lars’ introduction below).
And if you have XM Satellite Radio check out Mandatory Metallica, channel 51 (a tribute channel through September 30). This channel has even outdone the mighty Led Zeppelin in tribute radio channels. Whereas the Zeppelin XM channel (now defunct) repeated a lot of songs (every time I put it on, it seemed, I heard “Stairway To Heaven”), Mandatory Metallica plays a lot more live concert footage, new material, b-sides, cover songs (“Remember Tomorrow” by Maiden is a standout track!), interviews, and other snippets (a great one that played recently had guitarist Kirk Hammett explaining how he puts his child to sleep every night to Metallica’s Rockabye Baby! CD).
For their newest album, Death Magnetic, Metallica chose Rick Rubin to take the helm of the recording studio, parting with the producer from the last four outputs, Bob Rock. Guitarist Kirk Hammett sees this as a positive thing:
” … it (the new album) is almost 100 percent undiluted Metallica. This is the most pure we’ve sounded in a long time,” he tells MTV.com
That does sound refreshing. It sounds like it could have the same Kill ‘em All enthusiasm.
And he wonders why people don’t like him.
Why would a musician download his own music illegally? Only one answer to that: he’s curious how much of it is out there, and/or what quality it is.
