Metallica "72 Seasons" - a short review.

[sphinxsix]

In short - for me the 'Tallica guys could have retired the moment Hetfield left the "St Anger" session to go to rehab. Some artist avoid therapy, knowing that their demons and their inner struggle is food for their creativity. Some therapists claim there are ways to do it without throwing one's creativity out the window. Not the case here IMO. I'm very glad to see James being clearly a happier and a wiser man after quitting drinking. I'm much less happy with their albums for the recent 2 decades although there were only 3(!) of them.

I played the first three pieces from "72 seasons" only to realize that the music resembles so much their "retro" "grandpa" thrash metal from "Hardwired.." and "Death magnetic" (I'm not sure I remember a single piece from these two) and surprises me as much as the number of candles on my own birthday cake (just kidding, never had a candle on a cake). After that (3 first pieces), I played "Enter Sandman" and the first 30 seconds of it simply crushed all that I heard during the previous quarter. 

Metallica guys, please tour the world, play your old pieces as long as the lack of arthritis allows you if it's still fun for you or if it allows you to get one more modern painting (Ulrich) or fancy car or bike (Hetfield), just don't record new stuff. It's a waste of time. 

Not sure when I will play the 4th song from the album, maybe never.

What do you think, guys?

[DuckToller]

I have the "screaming suicide" on my recent playlist, but I am getting slightly bored from it, especially because I need to tear down the volume by 5dB when it plays. It's the hi-res from Q version, I have read on CD quality it is even worse

Agree to your appreciation of their earlier material, especially in not remastered versions.

[sphinxsix]

9 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

I have the "screaming suicide" on my recent playlist, but I am getting slightly bored from it,

That was fast! 

 

10 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

I need to tear down the volume by 5dB when it plays.

DR5 - fantastic (and I was pissed off by "Death Mag" DR8!)

 

11 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

It's the hi-res from Q version, I have read on CD quality it is even worse

Also hi-res Q version here.

 

[One and a half]

is the 'Q' version MQA, Quadraphonic or Qobuz?

[sphinxsix]

7 minutes ago, One and a half said:

is the 'Q' version MQA, Quadraphonic or Qobuz?

Qobuz.

 

[DuckToller]

2 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

That was fast! 

since end of January on Q

[DuckToller]

2 hours ago, One and a half said:

is the 'Q' version MQA, Quadraphonic or Qobuz?

the third, Qobuz ;-)

[maxijazz]

13 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

[…]
don't record new stuff. It's a waste of time. 

[…)

Some said so after Kill’em All.

[DuckToller]

13 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

DR5 - fantastic (and I was pissed off by "Death Mag" DR8!)

I checked in the DR database, there seem to be some variations ...  you seem to have  a  high quality copy of Death Mag ;-)
however, here are the top compressed ones (listed by DR MAX!), page 1 

Page 1	Red=worst - green=best
Artist	Album	Year		min	max	Codec	Source
			DR	DR	DR
Metallica	Death Magnetic	2008	3	2	4	Lossless	CD
Metallica	Hardwired... To Self Destruct (WAV VINYL COUPON)	2016	6	5	6	Lossless	Download
Metallica	Death Magnetic [2014 Pono Music Digital Download]	2014	5	3	6	Lossless	Download
Metallica	St. Anger	2016	5	4	6	Lossless	Download
Metallica	72 Seasons	2023	5	5	6	Lossless	Download
Metallica	Hardwired…To Self-Destruct (Hardwired - Single)	2016	6	6	6	Lossy	Download
Metallica	St. Anger (24/88.2)	2016	5	4	6	Lossless	Download
Metallica	72 Season (96kHz/24bit)	2023	5	5	6	Lossless	Download

[dericchan1]

I don’t know, I like the album, nothing new - it’s  just classic Metallica. I bought the album from prostudiomaster 24/96 and thought it’s pretty well recorded.

 

I mean yes I would not hesitate to buy a romantic, love theme album from Metallica but 72 seasons is good.

[cjf]

I'll have to give it a listen but it is depressing to see that they allowed the recording to be molested. Most of their older material actually had a pretty decent DR rating but the Black album was the best sounding of them all IMO.

 

Do these Artists not have any say in how the Album should sound once recorded or do they just not give a shit? 

 

If I spent time creating a Album, no one, and I mean no one, would be convincing me that it should be left with a DR 5 or less unless there was plans to also release a properly recorded version for the rest of the fans who actually do give a shit how it sounds. And not a lame ass vinyl only version either, I want a digital download properly recorded/mastered.

[firedog]

15 minutes ago, cjf said:

Do these Artists not have any say in how the Album should sound once recorded or do they just not give a shit?

In many cases they have no say, from my understanding. 

[cjf]

1 hour ago, firedog said:

In many cases they have no say, from my understanding

That's depressing to hear

[cjf]

So I just listened to the whole album for the first time.

 

Despite its sub par DR rating and less than Audiophile approved SQ I actually liked the whole album on first listen. This is kinda rare for me.

 

I can only think of one other album that I liked on first listen in the past few years that was a "New" album and that is Tool's Fear Inoculum.

 

 

[danadam]

10 hours ago, cjf said:

Do these Artists not have any say in how the Album should sound once recorded or do they just not give a shit? 

Lars Ulrich about Death Magnetic:

Quote

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 fuckin' smokin'.

Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich Breaks Band's Silence on Death Magnetic Loudness Controversy (webarchive link)

[DuckToller]

10 minutes ago, danadam said:

. But I've been listening to it the last couple of days in my car, and it sounds fuckin' smokin'.

Obviously his car has got a miserably unresolving audio system. My 10 years old Mazda CX-5 suffers from that malaise as well. Goes quite deep but sounds best with heavily compressed audio

 

I remember listening to the Dream Syndicate's "Put some miles on" from 2019 in the car - feeling it had some nice Placebo characteristics,. However, I couldn't cut through the whole song in my listening room, so bad it sounded.

[sphinxsix]

1 hour ago, DuckToller said:

Obviously his car has got a miserably unresolving audio system. My 10 years old Mazda CX-5 suffers from that malaise as well. Goes quite deep but sounds best with heavily compressed audio

Last time I cared about the sound in my car these were 2 way Focal speakers (right below Utopia series in their catalogue) and pretty basic Alpine electronics. We agreed with the national car audio contest vice champion (much more expensive  Clarion, plus separate amp, also not cheap and a subwoofer but older Focal series) that there were aspects of sound (eg highs separation and smoothness) which were better in my 'cheapo' system. I also remember me saying after listening to his audio "ok but I can clearly hear a sub in the trunk", he replied - "you have no right to hear that bass is  coming from the trunk!". My reply - "well sorry, I do".

Nowadays I turn on the car radio only every now and then and listen to the only classical radio there is here.  

I don't care about audio in my car anymore, the in car noise for me makes the whole thing of high quality car audio sound questionable but these Focals sounded damn good! 😎

[DuckToller]

2 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Last time I cared about the sound in my car these were 2 way Focal speakers (right below Utopia series in their catalogue) and pretty basic Alpine electronics. We agreed with the national car audio contest vice champion (much more expensive  Clarion, plus separate amp, also not cheap and a subwoofer but older Focal series) that there were aspects of sound (eg highs separation and smoothness) which were better in my 'cheapo' system. I also remember me saying after listening to his audio "ok but I can clearly hear a sub in the trunk", he replied - "you have no right to hear that bass is  coming from the trunk!". My reply - "well sorry, I do".

Nowadays I turn on the car radio only every now and then and listen to the only classical radio there is here.  

I don't care about audio in my car anymore, the in car noise for me makes the whole thing of high quality car audio sound questionable but these Focals sounded damn good! 😎

Olala, you just reminded me that I just added another year ...

In 1985,  I owned a little BMW, a Clarion car radio, an Alpine amp and Pioneer 2 ways. In 1986, I was close to personal bankruptcy at the age of 21.

No more aftermarket car audio after that experience.

[sphinxsix]

1 hour ago, DuckToller said:

I owned a little BMW, a Clarion car radio, an Alpine amp and Pioneer 2 ways. In 1986, I was close to personal bankruptcy at the age of 21.

In my native language BMW abbreviation stands for "you will have expenses" 😎

 

Seems BMW remains controversial in one way or another. From today's Reuters:

"Chinese internet users berated German automaker BMW (BMWG.DE) on Thursday, accusing it of discrimination at the Shanghai auto show amid claims workers at its Mini booth favoured foreign over domestic visitors during an ice cream giveaway promotion"

 

😂

[DuckToller]

22 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

In my native language BMW abbreviation stands for "you will have expenses" 😎

 

Seems BMW remains controversial in one way or another. From today's Reuters:

"Chinese internet users berated German automaker BMW (BMWG.DE) on Thursday, accusing it of discrimination at the Shanghai auto show amid claims workers at its Mini booth favoured foreign over domestic visitors during an ice cream giveaway promotion"

 

😂

A little "benign" icecream?

 

[sphinxsix]

51 minutes ago, DuckToller said:

A little "benign" icecream?

 

 

My favorite early Jarmusch movie! 

(and Chris cannot say again we're not discussing music here, it's clearly an early example of gangsta rap 😁)

 

[ShawnC]

After my first listening session... better then I expected.  Same sound as the last few albums and way to many riffs in some songs, ala ... And Justice For All.  Each track had some killer riffs but they often get lost by the end of the song.  I couldn't help but hear the sound of Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult in these tracks.  The album almost comes of as progmetal or something Rush would have made.  I think it may grow on me after a few more listening sessions. 

 

They difinitely didn't write this album for top 40 hits, only 2 tracks are under 5 minutes.  It just seems with so many riffs that don't necessary fit together, they could have spent more time composing these tracks for better form or continunity.  Although how more albums are they going to make.  Maybe James just wants to unleash his tresusre trove of stock piled riffs before it's to late.  Overall sound quality was fine.  At times there was distortion that reminded me of Death Magnetic but not nearly as audible throughtout the album.  I was impressed with some of the bass riffs on this album, usually those licks take second wind to James main riffs. 

 

I don't mind long songs or a ton of riffs per track, they just need purpose.  This is the only thing I think some of the tracks lack.  But a few more listening sessions and I'm sure it will grow on me.

[sphinxsix]

6 hours ago, ShawnC said:

Same sound as the last few albums and way to many riffs in some songs, ala ... And Justice For All. 

Had exactly the same association. Well.. if you don't have 1 or 2 really good riffs you compensate with 7 so so ones.. And this is thrash metal, creating a riff is not so complicated, creating a really good one is ..another story.
 

6 hours ago, ShawnC said:

Maybe James just wants to unleash his tresusre trove of stock piled riffs before it's to late. 

AFAIK they often compose by interacting with each other during a recording session but maybe James's sober evenings bear fruit of a thousand stock piled riffs.

 

6 hours ago, ShawnC said:

I don't mind long songs or a ton of riffs per track, they just need purpose. This is the only thing I think some of the tracks lack. 

I would actually say - yet another their album that lacks purpose.. 😎

 

6 hours ago, ShawnC said:

But a few more listening sessions and I'm sure it will grow on me.

Hope it will be so in your case, I ended on one session and didn't go beyond 3 songs.

 

A general remark - maybe I'm atypical but I always tend to be more excited by fresh sounds, by the music I haven't heard yet. This has definitely not been the case with the 'Tallica guys for the past 2 decades. Have a great respect for them for what they had done earlier, for me that was possibly the most important metal band of the 80's and 90's but they are simply not an important force in metal anymore. IMO.

 

[fas42]

Gee, just checked out how far heavy metal has progressed - Aussie band Buffalo, in, gulp, 1974 ...

 

 

[cjf]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:47 AM, danadam said:

Lars Ulrich about Death Magnetic:

Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich Breaks Band's Silence on Death Magnetic Loudness Controversy (webarchive link)

Thanks for the link. Interesting info in there.

 

Also from Lars:

 

"So 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."

 

These dudes can light cigars and wipe their hind quarters with 100 dollar bills all day long. Its hard to imagine how they don't own at least a half respectable playback system capable of resolving the necessary details in order to hear what all the fuss is about.

 

Rick Rubin's paws have destroyed the sound of many otherwise decent Albums IMO.