Metallica on 'Death Magnetic' complaints: Get over it

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has a few words for fans who are griping about the sound quality of the new "Death Magnetic" album.

In response to the debate over the CD's sonics, which has spawned an Internet petition now carrying more than 13,000 signatures asking for an improved version to be released, Ulrich tells Blender: "Listen, there's nothing up with the audio quality.

"It's 2008, and that's how we make records. [Producer] Rick Rubin's whole thing is to try and get it to sound lively, to get it to sound loud, to get it to sound exciting, to get it to jump out of the speakers. Of course, I've heard that there are a few people complaining. But I've been listening to it the last couple of days in my car, and it sounds ... smokin'."

Ulrich adds: "I'm not gonna sit here and get caught up in whether [the sound] 'clips' or it doesn't 'clip.' I don't know what kind of stereos these people listen on. Me and James [Hetfield] made a deal that we would hang back a little and not get in the way of whatever Rick's vision was. That's not to put it on him -- it's our record, I'll take the hit, but we wanted to roll with Rick's vision of how Metallica would sound."

Amid the audio brouhaha, "Death Magnetic" logged its third week on top of the national sales chart after selling an additional 132,000 copies last week. That puts the album's three-week total just under 1 million. The collection’s momentum should push it past the platinum sales plateau by this weekend.

At No. 2 is another entry from the Disney stable. Demi Lovato, who figured prominently in the "Camp Rock" film along with the Jonas Brothers, sold 89,000 copies of her debut "Don't Forget."

The Kings of Leon’s "Only By the Night" enters at No. 4 with sales of 74,000, just ahead of the Pussycat Dolls’ second album "Doll Domination," at No. 5 and also with a rounded sales figure of 74,000.

Jackson Browne’s "Time the Conqueror" starts out at No. 20 with first-week sales of 25,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

--Randy Lewis

Photo: Britta Pedersen / European Pressphoto Agency

Comments

[jamie alden]

It has been well documented that Death Magnetic was compressed (during mixing) so much that it resulted in audio distortion and a high level of clipping. As for there only being a few people complaining, over 13,000 have signed a petition asking for a remix. Death Magnetic is the latest victim of the loudness war. The whole story of Death Magnetic is well spoken to in a series of blog posts from a professional sound mastering engineer at http://mastering-media.blogspot.com

[Bob]

I think the Loudness is fine but they need to remaster the vocal tracks. For a minute I thought Eddie Vedder was singing.