Trivium & Metallica
Speaking of sound systems, what I’m currently listening to is the pre-release stream of Trivium’s new album Shogun, via their MySpace page. Two songs in, it sounds a like they’ve mostly returned to a more heavy style, in line with their first two albums, as opposed to the much lighter, Metallica-like style of The Crusade, but we’ll see how the rest of it turns out.
Speaking of Metallica, their new album, Death Magnetic, is pretty solid. A lot of people have been calling it a return to form, but that phrase gets thrown around a lot, and I’m not sure it makes sense in this case. What’s the form they’re returning to? To me, that would mean that the new album is a return to the Metallica of And Justice for All… and the albums previous to that. Their sound changed subtly after that to The Black Album, then drastically on Load and Re-Load, both of which I hated at first, but grew to appreciate a bit later. St. Anger was decent, and Death Magnetic is a pretty good follow-up, but it’s in that modern Metallica mode, not a true return to form. “Unforgiven III” and “The Day That Never Comes” are probably my two favorite tracks, but there’s plenty of other good stuff on there as well, and no songs I actively hate. I was especially glad to see them include an instrumental track again, as their instrumentals have always been some of my favorites (though this one is not in the league of “Orion” or “Call of Ktulu”).
patrick j. clarke
12:11 am Sep-27-2008I have yet to listen to the Trivium stuff, but the new Metallica CD is very good! The best song on the disc is the 5th track “All Nightmare Long”. It’s got classic Metallica breaks, a great beginning and a great speedy riff! I’m more of a fan of …And Justice and Master of Puppets so songs like “Cyanide”, “Broken, Beat and Scarred” and “The Judas Kiss” really resonate with me.
The one problem I have with the album is the recording quality. It really seems to have been mixed “loud” and loses some of the fidelity in sound. I’ve heard the Rock Band version is mixed lower and the quality is far superior. I’m just glad Metallica is back making fast riffy music! :D
- pjc
patrick j. clarke
12:13 am Sep-27-2008Sorry, it was “Guitar Hero” not “Rock Band”…
patrick j. clarke
12:36 am Oct-3-2008A follow up on a couple of things.
First, the Guitar Hero III mix of Death Magnetic is pretty good. Well, let me quantify that a bit. There is more “sound” there. The official mix is very compressed, but it IS very loud. The GH mix is A LOT lower in volume, but there is a richer sound spectrum.
I don’t think it’s a great mix tho, it really seems to be set up for Guitar Hero…the guitars are the hero of this mix.
Based on your post, I listened to the new Trivium album. It’s pretty good! I still think Death Magnetic is my favorite of the two, mainly because the Metallica album has more diversity in it, but Shogun is a great step forward for Trivium.
- pjc
John Joseph Adams
1:57 pm Oct-6-2008Glad you enjoyed the Trivium. If you haven’t heard them before, definitely check out their other albums as well.
patrick j. clarke
6:03 pm Oct-8-2008Have you seen “Get Thrashed” yet on DVD? Thought it was a great snapshot of the music of my youth and the progression of thrash!
http://www.getthrashed.com/
- pjc
John Joseph Adams
5:43 pm Oct-11-2008No, haven’t seen it. Looks interesting. I think the only metal DVD I’ve ever watched was the documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.