I'm just posting a quick one about Metal and Lossless
Basically, there are a good amount of albums that I have which are more than worth keeping in lossless because of the quality

On the other hand, there are alot of Metal recordings which are very rusty sounding or just plain badly produced...

Heres a few pristine metal recordings I have in lossless... (To give an example)

Scarve - Irradiant [2004] [Monkey's Audio Lossless]
Samael - Reign Of Light [2004] [Monkey's Audio Lossless]
Hypocrisy - The Arrival [2004] [FLAC Lossless]
Haggard - Eppur Si Muove [2004] [Monkey's Audio Lossless]
Dark Tranquillity - Projector [1999] [FLAC Lossless]
Vintersorg - Visions From The Spiral Generator [2002] [Monkey's Audio Lossless]
Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked [2005] [FLAC Lossless]
Bloodbath - Nightmares Made Flesh [2004] [Monkey's Audio Lossless]
The Sins Of Thy Beloved - Perpetual Desolation @APE
Opeth - Blackwater Park @APE
Septic Flesh - Sumerian Daemons @APE
Tristania - Ashes @ APE

They are more than worth it as far as quality is concerned if compared to their mp3 sister-files.

Could anyone reccomend some more well produced metal recordings to look into for my collection? It would be well appreciated.

Maybe the site admin could add his 2 cents? He has great metal taste as far as I remember...

just look 10-15 years back and you will find plenty of good (pristine) metal recordings from major companies

A whole lotta well-produced Hair and Power metal Yah, I've got a bunch of that..

But I'm just thinking in the last 1-15 years for metal album ideas that benefit from Lossless

I'm a fan of newer Death/Symphonic/Melodic/Black/Industrial metal stuff... cause its just too good. But theres so many bands I havnt heard of that sound great... which is why I have this thread

check out the ipecac label. (url: http://ipecac.com )

they have a lot of great bands, and good mastering (from what i have - i don't have a lot of metal/etc).


later

Sorry for my ignorance. You may have heard of this "loudness race" thing - people like to produce their stuff loud & clipping, which is why I prefer to purchase used discs from Ebay, which do not suffer from this. If you ever manage to find current discs not suffering from this problem, just let me know.

I know all too well of the loudness race, and yes its horrible

Alot of good metal seems to be excluded from the horrible masterings for loudness, but theres alot of bands that are just "loud"...

I don't get clipping, most of my stuff is RG'd. Alot of indie metal is produced flat as well...

Tomahawk's albums (produced by Ipecac) are pretty good.

just for the hell of it, i checked the album replaygain values of the tomahawk/fantomas stuff i have (all of it).

pretty good range, average = -6

that's pretty good considering dave lombardo is pounding the *&^% outta them drums


later

One standout album from last year is Invisible Circles by After Forever. It's loud, but the mastering is absolutely superb (IMHO).

And of course I need to mention Tool. All their album have excellent mastering.

anathema - the silent enigma
the guitars are so good i use one song as a part of my reference cd's... (a dying wish)

Ok, here are some killer albums;

The Haunted - rEVOLVEr (violent thrash with superb production)
Testament - The Gathering (yeah! Dave Lombardo on drums:))
Scar Symmetry - Symmetric In Design (kinda like Dark Tranquillity, only better and beefier sound!)
Demonoid - Riders Of The Apocalypse (monster guitar riffing and furious drumming! Cool concept! My fav!)
Soilwork - Stabbing The Drama (Scarve's drummer plays on this one)

All these albums have great production (IMO) and are just plain awesome. They are my favorites (in this genre). Check em out! I have them as flac's but I have recently been checking out wavpack.

edit: typo

Sins Of Thy Beloved - Lake of sorrow

Dan Swano - Moontower

The Gathering - Mandylion

Paradise Lost - Icon, Draconian Times, One Second, Host, Symbol Of life

Left Hand Solution - fevered

Nightwish - Wishmaster

Oh, well, check out these:

Sanitys Dawn - mangled in the meatgrinder (groovy, interesting sounds: european gore grind)

Vomitorial Corpulence - skinstripper (no other has their sound: brutal gore grind noise power violence)

Inhume - Decomposing from inside (good artificial - pods & triggers - sound: european brutal grind)

Scrawl - Q (really dynamic: jazz-ska-grind !)

My recommendation is Prog-Rock, kinda sorta related to metal, in a couple ways I guess..

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
It's the ultimate speaker/headphone show-off album for it's fantastic fidelity. Get yourself a copy, it's easily accessible for pretty much all listeners.

-joe

Samael - 'Ceremony of Opposites'

Opeth - 'Still Life'

Death - 'Symbolic'; 'The Sound of Perseverance' (both quite good in terms of production, considering the genre)

As for the somewhat lighter music, Tool - 'Lateralus' and King Crimson - 'The Power to Believe'.

Maybe: Danzig - '4p' and '6:66 Satan's Child'. Both are horribly overcompressed, but somehow manage to sound really good (but different).

All "tristania"(gothic-metal) albums to which i've listened, were heavily compressed, but did sound suprisingly well to me. I would even say awesome.

But don't make the mistake of asuming that this is also the case with their successor-band "Sirenia" - which sounds really squashed and loaded.

- Lyx

Regurgitate - Carnivorous Erection

this is the best sounding grind-record i've listened so far

Dunno if I got you right: You're looking for metal albums to add to your collection based purely on their production quality? From the other answers so far I assume you mean good music that also happens to be produced well, right?

Which brings me to an important though probably stupid question: What are you guys' criteria for a production of "pristine quality"? Unfortunately, I don't have a very good ear for hearing subtleties in music - hell, mp3@128cbr often enough sounds perfectly good for me . So the only indication I can really count on is the RG value - and there nearly all albums of the last few years that I have range in the -8.5 to -10.5 area.

Still, being totally subjective, I'd list these albums as recommendations:

Pain of Salvation - One Hour by the Concrete Lake [1999] [AG -8.41]
>ProgRock with a lot of experimenting, but still great melodies. From a creative pov much more impressive than Dream Theater

Savatage - From the Gutter To The Stage [1996] [AG -6.13]
>Power/Symphonic Metal. For me, all of there albums sound brilliantly produced, and the music might not be innovative, but extremely catchy. I often use their Dead Winter Dead album to get people interested in metal

Jeff Beck - You had it coming [2001] [AG -7.33]
>Famous Rock guitar player. This album has a very "fat" sound, but still sounds extremely crisp to me.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Beethoven's Last Night [2000] [AG -7.81]
>Bombastic, symphonic Metal. Savatage + Orchestra - which isn't merely a comparison, but actually the core of this project.

Karmakanic - Entering the Spectra [2002] [AG -7.61]
>ProgRock. Quite complicated, but still good to listen to. And this is one album where I'm certain that the production is without any fail, every detail is absolutely precise.

Liquid Tension Experiment
>crazily complex instrumental ProgRock. HAs to be produced superbly, or you couldn't bear listening to it.

One where I'm totally not sure is "Rage - XIII". Produced in 1998, with an AG of -5.93. Still sounds a bit, hmmm, rough to me. Anyone got an opinion on that one?

And also, what's you guys' opinion about Metallica's S&M? I personally never liked it too much, preferring Rage - Lingua Mortis as a classical & metal crossover. I often suspected this might be because S&M is terribly produced, but I can't really put my finger on it.

Oh well, I guess I could find some more, but this has gotten longer than I wanted, anyway.

cyde > I don't get clipping, most of my stuff is RG'd

The boo-hoo on the loudness race is that the music on the factory CD is already clipped...and no amount of RG can undo the damage. Good pre-amp / amp hardware should easily handle the dynamic range of 16 bit audio.

As far as metal goes ... give Virgin Black a whirl. Very unique blend of rock, orchestral, and even opera! The lead guitarist (a chick) wails.

xen-uno

Age Of Silence - Acceleration
avant-garde metal, that's all I can say

Aeternus - ...and So the Night Became
Great Production, Very Dynamic and one of my all time favorites.

Cradle of Filth - Dusk and her Embrace
Great production. broke with the standard black metal intentional crappy production.

Rebellion - Sagas Of Iceland - The History Of The Vikings Volume 1 (Heavy Metal)
Great production & mastering, great band, too.

In Extremo - Mein Rasend Herz (Folkish Gothic Metal)
Superb production & a great album. A must-have.

Judas Priest - Angel Of Retribution (Heavy Metal)
Well produced, solid album with some really good tracks.

That would be the first ones which came to my mind.

Dream Theater - Pretty much any of them. "Images and Words" stands out to me, though. Also check out their live albums which have top notch production.

Rush - "Moving Pictures", but again, can't really go wrong here. Live albums astounding too.

Tool - "Lateralus" I find to be the best, but all of them are benchmarks. Unbelievable clarity and depth.

Symphony X - "The Odyssey" is unbelievable. Just, wow. This is the only CD I have by them and needless to say I will be getting more. Highly recommended. Again, clarity and depth.

I like prog...

Albums that sound good are a rarity these days. Before grunge exploded onto the scene with its disgruntled, half-baked ethos, recording engineers used to take pride in their well-honed sonic skills. Nowadays the muddier the mix, the more "hip" it is to most. It does nothing but make me cringe and eventually stop listening to the disc.

With this out of the way, here are some well-recorded albums that rock hard:

"Pull" by Winger
"Cuatro" and "Drift" by Flotsam & Jetsam
"America's Least Wanted" by Ugly Kid Joe
"Images And Words" and "Awake" by Dream Theater
"Cowboys From Hell" by Pantera
"The Great Southern Trendkill" by Pantera
"Dog Eat Dog" by Warrant
"Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" by Dimmu Borgir
"Horror Show" by Iced Earth
"Dysfunctional" by Dokken
"Demolition" by Judas Priest
both albums by Liquid Tension Experiment
"Kings of Metal" by Manowar
"Cryptic Writings" by Megadeth
"Metallica" by Metallica
"Still Life", "Blackwater Park", "Deliverance" and "Damnation" by Opeth
"Empire" and "Promised Land" by Queensrÿche
"Bust A Nut" by Tesla
"Low" by Testament (dark, but gets clear over time)
"Exposed" by Vince Neil

@KyPeN:

If you like prog, check out James Labrie's solo album Elements Of Persuasion. What a production!!! Just amazing... and the album smokes as well.

I like Symphony X's the Odyssey too, but I think it lacks bass. Sounds kinda flat to me.

My Dying Bride 2004
Candlemass 2005

NIN recordings are good, clean and heavy. The Fragile is a terrific headphone album and has standout engineering.

I love Dream Theater, but their Trail of Thought is very clipped if I recall correctly. Replaygain is around -8dB, which is a hallmark of compressed CD. It does sound very loud too. I hope others refer to great dynamics and no clipping when they dare to say "good mastering". I am talking from memory and now I am just about to move so I cannot check.

Triza

Black Sabbath remasters by Castle Music are quite good (around -7 on the replaygain scale). Some of the Warner Bros. ones are okay too.
+
Danzig
Led Zeppelin
Dio
Dire Straits
Early Metallica albums such as Master Of Puppets and Ride the Lightning
Nirvana
Rush
Smashing Pumpkins

Basic rule of thumb is to find the oldest CD release of an album you can find. Modern remasters (late ninetes onwards) tend to be destroyed. It is a crying shame how they have butchered some really amazing old metal Some people should go to hell for what they did to AC/DC's work, they really, really should.

There are still lots of gems out there, just look around carefully.

IMHO, Rob Halford's "Ressurrection" was the best mastered CD I have ever heard. Usually, anything that is "Remastered" is utter crap.

In the same spirit, the non-remastered version of Meatloaf's "Bat out of hell II: Back to hell" is amazingly mastered, though it is not metal (it is hard rock).

Sorry the wake up old thread, but.... lacks bass? I think The Odyssey is one of the most ass-kicking albums I've ever heard. If you think The Odyssey sounds flat, what you consider as punchy then?

Sideshow Symphonies and The Sham Mirrors by Arcturus have magnificent mastering! Also check out Solefald - In Harmonia Universali. I support the Samael and Tool suggestions, Lateralus is HDCD even.

-8db is really that bad? I don't think I have any metal save the original version of Queensryche's Op: Mindcrime that's below -7 yet a lot of it sounds good, although you can REALLY tell with things like Arsis' less-than-impressive -11.

Anyway, outside of this weird hiss thing in the second song that could very well be intentional, Kamelot's The Black Halo sounds great--if just a bit hot--to my ears; massive improvement over the somewhat muddy Epica and the flat/dry Karma. The Pain of Salvation albums The Perfect Element and BE are also good in that regard.

And to echo something that's already been mentioned, The Gathering's Mandylion and Nighttime Birds albums sound good too. Their later foray into non-metal, if_then_else, is a bang-up recording too... just forget about How to Measure a Planet?, it's as loud as their metal albums despite being subdued stuff throughout,

Since the thread is back:


It's not, and I can't!!! It's severly clipped and makes my ears bleed.

And on subject of Dream Theater, although Train of Thought is loud, I think it scales well, and sounds good in comparison to Octavarium and 6 Degrees. Octavarium is well and truly broken, and 6 degrees is sadly squished to the point of sounding pathetic and weak in some places. (not the music's fault I believe)

Any thoughts?

[ps]
My theory for why people often don't like LaBrie's voice is actually because of the very obvious limiting on the vocal track, even on the (relatively) older albums. On headphones it's like a head pressurizer, and even on speakers it's quite irritating.
[/ps]

BTW. I love Dream Theater.
Can you believe it.

What about Black Sabbath original releases? (Warner Bros. records)

With Ronnie James Dio as vocalist.

* Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell *
Original Warner Bros. release, year 1980; RG_album: -2 db

* Black Sabbath - Mob Rules *
Original Warner Bros. release, year 1982; RG_album: -2 db

Or Judas Priest original 80's releases?

* Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance *
original release date: 1982; RG_album: around -3 db

* Judas Priest - British Steel *
original release date: 1980; RG_album: around -3 db

* Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith *
original release date: 1984; RG_album: around -3 db

* Judas Priest - Turbo *
original release date: 1986; RG_album: around -3 db

Or better still: The legendary Iron Maiden band

* Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden *
original release date: 1980; RG_album: around -2 db

* Iron Maiden - Killers *
original release date: 1981; RG_album: around -2 db

* Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast *
original release date: 1982; RG_album: around -2 db

* Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind *
original release date: 1983; RG_album: around -2 db

* Iron Maiden - Powerslave *
original release date: 1984; RG_album: around -3 db

* Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time *
original release date: 1986; RG_album: around -3 db

* Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son *
original release date: 1986; RG_album: around -3 db

But, if we are talking about progressive rock that better than Rush?

* Rush - Signals *
original release date: 1982; RG_album: around -2 db

* Rush - Grace Under Pressure *
original release date: 1984; RG_album: around -2 db

* Rush - Permanent Waves *
original release date: 1980; RG_album: around -2 db

Or maybe...

* Camel - Mirage *
original release date: 1974; RG_album: around -2 db

* Camel - Moonmadness *
original release date: 1976; RG_album: around -2 db

* Focus - Moving Waves *
original release date: 1972; RG_album: around -2 db

* Focus - III *
original release date: 1973; RG_album: around -2 db

* Jethro Tull - War Child *
original release date: 1974; RG_album: around -2 db

* Jethro Tull - Aqualung *
original release date: 1971; RG_album: around -2 db

* Genesis - Seconds Out *
original release date: 1977; RG_album: around -3 db

* Genesis - Selling England by the Pound *
original release date: 1973; RG_album: around -3 db

This list could continue with much more... this is only a small sample of that the 70's and 80's decades can offer. All of these albums mentioned here are authenticate masterpiece of the rock. But, be careful... the evil loudness race has destroyed these albums. For that you can enjoy them, you need to obtain of original releases, not the remasters.

The original Black Sabbath releases (from 70's and 80's decades) have replaygain album values around of -2db or -3db, and they sound incredible.
For me, RG of -7 db is very annoying. I prefer definitively the original releases.

This is such a fantastic sounding album. I love the almost ambient (for lack of a better term) feel it has.

Yeah. I understand, exactly my feelings. This album is one of the best of this band.

If you like a lot "Somewhere in time", then, I recommend you to listen
"Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"; this is a excellent album too; IMO even better than "Somewhere in time"; BTW "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" is my prefer album of Iron Maiden. All the songs are excellent. This album has the same ambient as "Somewhere in time", but the music is more intense.

But, as i already mentioned; the original release is good, the remaster (or enhanced) is pure crap.

I'm a big Dream Theater fan as well

And I agree with you about many of the points you make. Also I never really thought of that as a reason why so many people seem to dislike LaBrie's voice (I'm a big fan of his myself), but I could see this as possible now that I think about it.

And by the way, Tristania's First album, "Widow's Weeds", sounds pretty good to me. And it clips only in track "December Elegy", if I remember right.

Some albums that sound good to me:

Vader - The Art Of War
Mechanical Poet - Woodland Prattlers
Blood Red Throne - Altered Genesis
Cryptopsy - Once Was Not
Decapitated - Nihility
Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet?

Just kick-ass albums:

Typhus - Profound Blasphemous Proclamation
Regnum - Regnum
1349 - Hellfire
Horna - Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne

EDIT: Nevermore - Enemies Of Reality (2005 Remaster), sounds awesome.

What, no Prong!?

Jaysus - check out "Beg To Differ" (LP - Epic 1990) and the BBC Peel Session - 12" 45 (also 1990).

PUT IT TO UUUSE!!!!


>> edit. the 1st album, "Force Fed" was pretty scary too.

>> edit 2. "Beg To Differ" had (sic) some of the most amazing bass I've heard in all my life (Mike Kirkland, also vocals), but I was listening on LP the year it was released, and at the time I was trying hard to build a serious turntable-based machine.

The Album of the 90'

Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine (1992)

I would much prefer this. But I can't find any of the earlier ones (master of reality, vol. 4 etc etc) that aren't compressed some.

Thanks for the turn on to Porcupine Tree. Do you suggest any of their other albums as being as good as In Absentia?

TIA

Nobody even mentioned a single Slayer album yet. Yall should be ashamed of yourselfs. ;P

I don't really like their other album deadwing as much, but if you like porcupine tree, go ahead and pick it up.

An album i recently picked up has some decent fidelity try
Kamelot - The Black Halo

Also, any dream theater sounds really clear. They don't bring up the bass guitar much in their recordings that much (compared to them being live) but it still sounds awesome. Usually the older the DT recording, the better it sounds, at least I think so.


-Joe

But their vocalist sounds like a dying pig!

Testament - First Strike Still Deadly (their old songs re-recorded, great sound)

Sorry. Wrong thread!