Metallica – Death Magnetic

Listening to this album on the first US vinyl pressing is a truly unique experience—yes, that categorically! It’s not that vinyl makes the sound "better" in the usual sense—just different. And in this case, closer to how it might (or might not) have been originally intended. Later reissues, including digital versions, were tweaked for vinyl and had their loudness "corrected," ultimately losing some authenticity and the spirit of the era.

CD vs. Vinyl:
Yes, the vinyl wins—but not by a landslide, as both formats suffer from a heavily compressed mix. The vinyl retains slightly more dynamics, especially in drums and bass, making it sound "livelier."

The CD, however, was pushed harder (+3.6 dB!), making digital distortion even more noticeable—at times, it sounds flat and "plastic." The vinyl was mastered separately, possibly with less "loudness war" aggression. Ted Jensen (the engineer) claims he received already distorted tracks—but who decided to crank the CD further remains a mystery. Maybe vinyl just couldn’t handle that level of abuse?

Listening to this one for the first time and it’s not too bad. If course it doesn’t say much when the best way to listen to this album is the Guitar Hero rip but whatever. I oicked it up on sale knowing that this will never get remastered and corrected for the compression clipping. I’m listening on a rebuilt Lenco L75 table with a Dynavector 10x5 Cart, McIntosh Amplifier and B&W speakers. The soundstage is great. Some surface noise right out of the sleeve. Solid bass and overall dynamics are what you can expect of this mix. Overall very enjoyable listen, especially when it’s such a kickass album.

nesse álbum o Metallica retorna ao seu estilo tradicional, juntando o ado com o atual na época do seu lançamento, gostei muito das canções, riffs marcantes e bons solos do Kirk, a bateria do Lars está bem frenética e conseguimos ouvir o baixo do Trujillo, o ponto negativo que achei foi a mixagem do álbum, achei muito estridente, mas é algo que não incomodado depois de alguns minutos de audição, álbum nota 9,5.

Post-Master-of-Puppets/post-Cliff-Burton, Metallica sounds pretty stale. There are moments on Justice, but they really jumped the shark with their self-titled album. I finally gave this one a listen and was, sadly, as underwhelmed as ever. This is metal for dads who golf.

The audio mastering/mixing on this is so bad. Genuinely sounds worse than some mp3 files at 256kbps.

Why don't they just remaster this shit already. This record deserve a proper remaster and remix without brickwalling for vinyl! :(

Not even Kevin Gray managed to save this one. I never had high hopes, since this is one of the worst sounding records of all time, and the LP version sounds just as bad as the CD or the streaming. They could've at least replicated the die-cut design the original CD booklet have to make it a little more interesting, but even the cover is just a simple regular print. At least the vinyl is flat and silent and the silver/grey matches the artwork.

Is this based off the original brickwalled 2008 master or the 2015 remaster?

very quiet for a silver vinyl (or other color)
unfortunately I have no comparison to the other pressings, but everything is there and nothing is disturbing!

Dunno. Never loved this album but this record is great and I start digging it. Sounds much better than my copy of AJFA and on par with other very good Metallica records