reminds me that I still never got around to listening to the Ulcerate album. I should probably do that, given that it’s currently the top of the pile of the m-a review aggregate on empath which probably gives it a good chance of winning (or at least being 2nd) on the poll also.
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Maybe lighter for heavy music but I recently found out Lowrider, a stoner rock band from 2000, is making music again. This collab with elephant ear is in heavy rotation for me right now. I like this kind of “sublime” guitar work paired with the only vaguely subtle Swedish folk influence.
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the new demon bitch record is out and is, dare i say, better than the first
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There were only four full length Trhä releases last year (and one split release). Quiet year.
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apropos our discussion the other day (and the limmy clip above), i’m listening to the live iron maiden album beast over hammersmith
this was recorded in 82 right before number of the beast was released, so the setlist is both from that album and the first two. you hear bruce dickinson doing most of the really good paul dianno songs.
i’m a huge iron maiden fan, but those first three albums are really something special. this live album is phenomenal and stands a chance at being my really annoying pick for favorite maiden album. you can feel the energy, all the lads at the top of their game. tears in my eyes at the masterclass on the pitch.
gonna tag @Tom since i know he shares my iron maiden and live album preferences
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I will have to have a proper listen tomorrow, as it’s bedtime and I can’t be headbanging - I will spill my tea. However I did one song, my favourite from the Di’Anno albums, Wrathchild, and it sounded incredible!
That’s a great recommendation and I shall properly enjoy it tomorrow, very loud of course. Thanks @MoH
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Saw Metallica in August, which was a huge bucket list show for me. It’s WILD that they’re playing better live now in their 60s than 20 years ago and they just keep getting better. I like the new album quite a bit too.
It’s cool to hate anything post Black album, but the remastered/demastered Death Magnetic also rules. There. I said it!
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I’m gonna go back to the conversation about live recording from last month if that’s cool. Besides, I’ll take any excuse to share music with people.
@exodus I’d like to share some exceptional live recordings that are better or transformative of the studio recordings. I prefer 2 of the 3 to the studio recordings even though they aren’t played any different.
The studio recording of this song is total ass. The first few Opeth albums all have the same sound and I just can’t stand it.
This live version is incredible and sounds totally different. Bonus points if someone can help me understand WTF he’s saying with “It’s a ‘doobie’ song.” Like for smoking joints? What’s he saying?
I also permanently associate this song with the guy screaming “I LOVE YOU” in the beginning.
Something possesses James Hetfield when they play The Day That Never Comes and the live recording with close up footy of the band really elevates it.
Please forgive the lack of heaviness, but Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were here is fine in the studio version
But this live version is missing the white glove clinical way the studio version was mixed. I think this version is probably closer to how they wanted the song to sound.
Honourable mention to Metallica’s '89 set in Seattle. Probably their peak in terms of live performance.
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Which show(s) did you go to? I saw the m72 shows in Paris in 2023 and had an amazing couple of nights, best shows I’ve seen with them and one of my favourites ever to attend. I agree now they are really incredible live, not to say they weren’t before, but now they are on a new level.
I like your hot take there! Death Magnetic does sound better now, because the Loudness Wars are over (A great subject to look into if you’re a fan of how records are mastered) but mostly because they play a few songs live and that’s when they sound best. Plus the main riff in That Was Just Your Life is damn good!
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M72 in Seattle August 30th. It’s super convenient for me to get to. There’s a boat that crosses the border from Canada straight into Seattle. We were actually in the country less than 24 hours. Seeing two nights sounds sick since they aren’t repeating songs. Also sounds exhausting haha.
It’s almost a different album! When I first listened in '08 I got a headache. Thank goodness the loudness wars crap is over. Now we just need to figure out how to get dialogue in TV and movies mastered in such a way you can hear it on a normal person setup.
Anyway I’m a massive dweeb and I actually wrote out the setlist on my phone as the show went on:
Creeping death
Harvester of sorrow
Leper messiah
King nothing
72 seasons
If Darkness had a son
Rob & kirk jam
The day that never comes
Shadows follow
Orion
Nothing else matters
Sad but true
Blackened
Fuel
Seek and destroy
Master of puppets
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Now that’s a set list! I love the first five songs, how from totally different eras and albums don’t look out of place at all in a Metallica show in that order. We did the two nights in Paris - perfect excuse for a few days in the city in a hotel sans les enfants, so got to see both shows with a day off in between. Here’s the links to the pages so you can see the set lists:
Opening the first show with For Whom the Bell Tolls was mindblowing and worked so well, I almost blew my voice on that song alone haha So glad I got to this tour and make a proper event of it. Not sure how much longer they’ll keep touring as they’ve set their own bar on live perfomances which is a hard one to live up to.
Yes it wasn’t a fun time. The only people who won were a few mixers/producers who got to show off, but a LOT of people lost that one. Mostly us as a listeners. Every song from the album is different when played live, especially from S&M2 with the Unforgiven III!
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I was really hoping to hear For Whom The Bell Tolls. I bet that was great. I also didn’t realize they published the set lists or I would have just found it online lol.
Funny thing with Death Magnetic is that I was 14/15 when it came out so I didn’t understand why it sounded that way. It wasn’t until way later that I learned a teeny bit about audio and realized exactly why it was so bad. I feel like the way it was mastered permanently damaged that album’s reputation. On the other hand I wonder if the folks that won’t even give the new music a chance might feel different if it was mixed to sound like the 80s albums.
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I am sorry to be a downer but these to me are great examples of how I already feel about live versions. The opeth track sounds like a sloppier, more mushed together version of the original where I can’t hear the un-distorted guitar but hardly.
The Pink Floyd version is good but the crowd noise is distracting any annoying to me.
And Metallica’s last album was the black album and they were on the edge for me even there so it is possible this version is nicer but I’m too much of a jerk to really know ha ha.
Iron maiden came up and it was actually a maiden album (live after death) that let me know I don’t like live albums. It was actually my first maiden experience, and once I got the actual albums the songs were from I was like oh!! This band is way better than I thought!
There are a few exceptions for me for simpler songs where I prefer the nuance of a version recorded in one take but to me live versions are like George Lucas putting flashlights in everyone’s hands and making Jabba the Hutt cg. Unless I’m there in person in which case I’m enjoying the experience and the waves of sound more than having a listening party. If that makes sense!
Obviously I think it’s cool for people to like these performances, and I am in fact a bit jealous! It’s also a great way for bands to make a bit more money which is cool. But I listened to some snippets of the iron maiden live album linked above (I don’t have Spotify) and got enough to have the immediate thought, “ah, here’s Dickinson doing it wrong.” That’s not what I want to think! But the album version is “right” and live version is “a bit wrong” unless they do something really significant to change it into something new. For me!
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They have set lists from almost their entire career on their website. I’ve been able to see every show I’ve ever been to which is great as the memory isn’t what it was - especially as my first show of theirs was in 1996
Ironically the best version released of Death Magnetic was on the Guitar Hero Metallica game, as it wasn’t mastered as loud and sounded a lot cleaner. I played it quite a bit for that and found it sounded more like it should have than the release. Like other albums of theirs, they’re set at a moment in time and the production reflects that. I think it’s why live I prefer them as they play the sounds now in the way I like to hear them. I’m not the same Metallica fan I was in 1990 that I am now and neither are they, so for me it’s a good evolution of sound unlike other bands.
@exodus I won’t try to sell you on live versions of songs as I understand how you like to listen to them, and what version you prefer. I will say though I think this is a great example of taking a song which is almost 30 years old and still being able to make it sound new and different. I couldn’t make this specific show but I still got to enjoy their new version of it. And damn I think it’s cool
At least you didn’t say “They sold out on Fade to Black!” haha
@exodus No worries at all. No offence/downer taken! Except for a couple, I see them as supplementary experiences to the studio recordings. I totally get what you mean by something sounding “kinda wrong”. I also feel that live recordings are never a substitute for actually being there and enjoying the moment.
On the other hand, some music is mastered too “perfect” and it can remove the human element, but that’s neither here nor there other than an excuse to bring up that I like how The White Stripes’ Dead Leaves on The Dirty Ground has a mistake in the intro.
@Tom That’s bananas! I’m very sorry to say this, but I was a toddler when you first saw them. Apparently, I’m The Kid around here.
Wasn’t the album with different mixes only on the Wii version, which was also in mono?
The version I listen to now I think was some sort of rerelease. It’s labelled Death Magnetic Unloaded.
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Apparently the mixes were different on all songs compared to the original CD, DLC for GH3 and Metallica as well. I could hear a difference at the time, but maybe that was because it was coming through the TV compared to a stereo and that was the biggest difference. All I do remember was this sounded cleaner than the CD and after years of people researching it, turns out I as well as most people were right! I think that Unloaded version is the GH version of the album, but maybe the iTunes one which had a different mix. It’s strange how after a couple of years St. Anger had the controversy for how it sounded, and now it’s Death Magnetic!
No need to apologise at all! One thing I love about music is that it doesn’t have an age limit. If you discover a band at eight, 18 or 80 and still love it, then that’s the moment you discovered it. I wish when I was a teenager I thought like that as I would have been more open to non-metal music more, and discovered more bands and music I love now that at the time I didn’t!
I’d say with older age for me comes wisdom, but probably just more grey hair!!!
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Mykke C-town (formerly of Dead End Hiphop) does great roundups every year end of his favorite non-hip-hop albums. It’s mostly heavy music: metal, punk, industrial, martial folk, experimental stuff, noise. Really worth checking out for some off the beaten path picks.
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I discovered Metallica when I started taking guitar lessons, just before Death Magnetic came out. Something I really love about this band is that you see all ages at concerts. I think that’s very nice.
I also distinctly remember hating dubstep and most electronic music as it was at peak popularity in highschool. I like some electronic now but man people were listening to some hot trash at the time. There’s an idea that fashion repeats itself every 20 years, but only the good parts come back. I think it’s true with music too, and applies to taste expanding as you age and hear that music you hated when you were younger.
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for what it is worth, I liked jungle/dnb at the time (and continue to do so) and thought dubstep was absolute garbage also.
I’m one of those annoying old people that even at the time thought the black album was bad. Master Of Puppets remains their best output.
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