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Topic: Well-produced metal albums (Read 5985 times) previous topic - next topic
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Well-produced metal albums

I'm looking for modern (2000+) metal albums that aren't compressed to hell like 99% on the market. Are there specific labels that are known for not mastering too hot?

Well-produced metal albums

Reply #1 –
This is what I would recommend from the top of my head:

Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin (2002) (-8.16 dB)
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life And Death (2006) (-6.73 dB)
King Diamond - House of God (2000) (-7.32 dB)
King Diamond - Give Me Your Soul, Please (2007) (-7.73 dB)
Lake of Tears - Forever Autumn (1999) (-6.28 dB)
Moonspell - The Antidote (2004) (-8.94 dB)
Moonspell - Memorial (2006) (-11.27 dB)
Therion - Lemuria (2004) (-7.99 dB)
Therion - Sirius B (2004) (-8.21 dB)
Opeth - All post-2000 works (album gains vary from -8 dB to -9 dB)

These albums are not uncompressed, but the sound is great and there is some real dynamics in the songs.

Edit:

Added some more albums and ReplayGain values to make meaningful comparisons possible. I didn't just take the lowest RG valued metal albums from my collection since I think good sound also depends on other things.

Well-produced metal albums

Reply #2 –
I'm just starting to learn about compression etc., but I've found that Conquer by Soulfly sounds pretty decent, as does the latest Meshuggah album.

Well-produced metal albums

Reply #4 –
Well, I should have made myself more clear. I'm not looking for albums with ReplayGain values worse than -8 dB and with transients squashed into one line. I've looked at plenty albums now and from my experience albums with -6 dB can look absolutely unmolested, with all their transients fully intact. With -7 dB they already start to show signs of compression because there are much more peaks reaching the 0 dB mark and much less not reaching it. -8 dB is the last I'm willing to tolerate. -9 is already so brick-walled that I'm getting sick from just looking at it. I don't want to tell me "well, it's heavily compressed but it sounds quite alright". I just want to avoid any albums that are affected by the loudness war.

I should have avoided the term "well-produced" as I agree that there are albums that are compressed and sound quite okay. But I'm not looking for those.

Well-produced metal albums

Reply #5 –
Tool - Lateralus

After Forever - Invisible Circles
Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Well-produced metal albums

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Northpack on
Quote from: niktheblak on
Moonspell - Memorial (2006) (-11.27 dB)

Are you serious!?

Yes. Even though the Memorial album has a high ReplayGain value, I think it still sounds great. Drums have some real chest-beating thump and the volume levels for different instruments are stable enough not to sound (overly) compressed. In short, this is probably the best sounding heavily compressed album I've heard for a great while.

Pretty much all metal albums are very compressed today (some of it is due to the fact that metal naturally sounds pretty compressed even if you're playing it live, on the stage). It's all about finding a right compromise between compression and absolute sound quality.

The earlier Moonspell album (The Antidote) still sounds a helluva lot better, though.

Well-produced metal albums

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Hancoque on
Well, I should have made myself more clear. I'm not looking for albums with ReplayGain values worse than -8 dB and with transients squashed into one line.

Ok, in that case only two of the albums I've listed fill this criteria. I think finding modern metal albums with RG values of under -8 dB will be extremely difficult. You might want to venture well away from the mainstream. I have some modern(ish) stuff with RG values around -6 dB (mostly self-produced amateur stuff), but that material is really too weird and unknown to recommend it to anyone. Besides, they still sound like sh*t, even though the RG values are low.

Edit:

Oh yeah, I have to add this:

Metallica - Death Magnetic (Guitar Hero Rip) (2008) (-3.21 dB)