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SINGAPORE: When Metallica released their latest album, Death Magnetic, fans were flooding the Internet with two topics: One, how fantastic the new album is — “their best since The Black Album” quoth The Guardian; and two, how terribly loud it is.
Yes, I kid you not.
People are complaining about the new levels of loudness Metallica — one of the key proponents of heavy metal music, mind you — has achieved, such that there is “clipping” (a slight distortion of the sound) if you play the CD at high volume.
Now, this is of a major worry, especially to pedants and audiophiles who like to hear every crisp note on the sound spectrum that can possibly be heard by human ears.
On YouTube, said pedants and audiophiles have even posted up a Guitar Hero version of a song on the new album and compared it to the album version.
And yes, you can clear a slight difference in terms of sound levels and a distortion in the overall sound. It’s upset so many that they’ve even started a petition to get the album remastered to a more manageable volume level.
This, of course, reminded me of the times when my dad would complain about the loud music blasting from my hi-fi set at home. Of course, my arguments about how rock music was supposed to be heard loud fell on deaf ears — or in my dad’s case, probably not so deaf.
I remember thinking at the time, if growing old meant having the inability to appreciate good music, then I, like what The Who used to sing, hope I die before I get old.
Which brings me back to my point about Metallica. Now, I’ve been listening to their music since Ride the Lightning. Admittedly, at the time I was too into post-punk to appreciate Metallica, but by and by, I grew to like what they did.
I’m no hardcore fan, but I’ll go see their concert because of the sheer energy that emanates from them. An energy that’s fuelled by the largesse of their sound, by the way.
But after listening to the album, I have to say I liked what I heard. (I listened to it both on my hi-fi and on my laptop.) So what if there’s a slight distortion? I don’t know about the rest of you but isn’t Metallica supposed to be loud? They’re a heavy metal band, for crying out loud, not Metal-lite.
Besides, who listens to heavy metal music for the clarity of sound? It’s not Sarah McLachlan, you know? Does it really matter that Kirk Hammett’s distortion is slightly more distorted than usual?
Maybe we’re just getting too old to appreciate eardrum-shattering decibels. Metallica — too loud? That’s an oxymoron.
But if you really can’t handle the volume and clipping, there’s a solution to that: It’s a little button on your remote called “volume”. Use it.
And now, please excuse me, because, as Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel might say, I have to turn my volume up to 11. - TODAY/sh
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