i recently purchased a new album, and the recording job kind of sucked, with all of the s's and t's in vocals causing some static distortion in the way-high-up ranges. i don't know how to use LAME too well, i just do preset standard, so i am wondering if there is a way to remove everything past a certain level of khz. if so, what level is suggested for preserving most of the music, but getting rid of the static? its a drum and bass album, so yes, there are things like cymbals and stuff which go rather high. i'm looking for a good compromise.

thanks!

Lame is not an audio restoration utility. You could play with the --lowpass option, but it will do as much harm to the music as it does to the distorsion I'm afraid.
Syntax is --lowpass lowpassfreq , where lowpassfreq should be given in kHz.
Try values from 17 kHz down to 12 kHz. Add this option to your command line, for example : --preset standard --lowpass 15

Are you sure it's from sloppy mastering, i.e. clipping? It might be being clipped on playback. Have you tried listening to it at a lower volume level?