Which Metal artists that have excellent sound quality recordings?

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Huck

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Re: Metal artists that have excellent sound quality.
« Reply #40 on: 17 Jan 2023, 07:53 pm »
Can someone check my hearing,or maybe it's my 'music sense',or whatever.
I listened(streamed) to Ozzy's new title "Patient #9" in Ultra HD (Amazon Unlimited) just now and I am a little disappointed in the sound quality,so I thought someone here would be kind enough and give me a "Sound Quality" score from 1-10.I need to find out if it's me,my stereo or something else?!
I give it a sound quality score of 4.5/10. Thanks,Huck

Anyone else? Thanks,Huck
« Last Edit: 18 Jan 2023, 02:01 pm by Huck »

Jeff_From_Michigan

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Huck,

I'll have to go back and re-listen. Maybe it is because I liked the album so much that I overlooked the recording quality.  But the Qobuz 24/44.1 stream sounds great to me, in my system.  I'll double check that I didn't have the LUMIN upsampling to 176 or DSD, but then again, it also sounds good to me at 24/44.1 on the desktop.

Thanks to the other posters, whose suggestions I will be checking out.

Delta77

I'm really not into metal. What I would call heavy rock is a better description of what I can listen to.
Bands like Anthrax, Slayer, Death Angel don't work for me.
I can listen to Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judus Priest, but slower music Def Leppard, Tom Petty just seems to have a more pleasent presentation of music that can be listend to for hours without ear fatuige.
I'm wondering if my system has anything to do with which musical genders are presented without distortion.
I use a tube preamp along with a tube amp (EL34) or (300B).
HUCK, What does your system consist of.??

Huck

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I'm really not into metal. What I would call heavy rock is a better description of what I can listen to.
Bands like Anthrax, Slayer, Death Angel don't work for me.
I can listen to Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Judus Priest, but slower music Def Leppard, Tom Petty just seems to have a more pleasent presentation of music that can be listend to for hours without ear fatuige.
I'm wondering if my system has anything to do with which musical genders are presented without distortion.
I use a tube preamp along with a tube amp (EL34) or (300B).
HUCK, What does your system consist of.??
My system is nothing fancy or expensive,but I can tell good from bad recording.
 I have two systems,my main rig is a pair of powered 'pro' speaker,pro sub,SS pre-amp,streamer,DAC.
Second system upstairs is for computer surfing and some listening....Shure headphones with custom cable,Benchmark DAC1 USB, JBL 305's,KRK 8s sub.
Obviously,for me, some tunes that sound not so good on main rig,sound better listening through phones.Huck

Huck

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I tried to get into Patient #9 for the fourth time last night and have taken it off of my routine listening rotation,sounds too muck like A.M. radio.Huck

kenreau

unfortunately, metal and excellent sound quality are never used in the same sentence.  Even "metal" has some room for interpretation.

A few metal, or hard rock bands I really like that have reasonably good sound quality include

Black Sabbath - can't ignore the founding fathers.  The first 2~3 albums sound great to me.
Tool - Fear Inoculum, plus most of their prior albums sound good.
High On Fire - Blessed Black Wings.  The drums on Devilution sound incredible.
Sleep - The Sciences
OM - Pilgrimage

More in the hard rock genre, I really like Kyuss, QOTSA, Clutch, Truck Fighters and Fu Manchu.  The Fu album "Go For It...Live" is one of the best sounding live recordings I've heard.  The mic is front row center and you can even hear the Marshall and Ampegs buzzing in between songs.  Great concert recording. 

FireGuy

I will listen to Sorceress tonight.
Which other titles would you consider to best their best sounding?. I will be streaming AMZ.Thanks,Huck :thumb:

Opeth's "Watershed" (2008).   A real nice balance of harsh and clean vocals.  Prime example of how these two styles generate a wonderful sense of depth and texture.  Watershed is so well produced and executed.  Audio top notch as well.  No other band out there like Opeth.  I find them to quite unique and masterful.

FullRangeMan

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unfortunately, metal and excellent sound quality are never used in the same sentence.  Even "metal" has some room for interpretation.
+1. This is the obvious thing, as I said in the post 23 that Metal are recorded in PCM 24/44, the lowest quality format, except the vintage 16/44.
« Last Edit: 20 Jan 2023, 04:26 am by FullRangeMan »

kenreau

Opeth's "Watershed" (2008).   A real nice balance of harsh and clean vocals.  Prime example of how these two styles generate a wonderful sense of depth and texture.  Watershed is so well produced and executed.  Audio top notch as well.  No other band out there like Opeth.  I find them to quite unique and masterful.

I need to give them a spin.  A coworker when to see them live and iirc, they were touring with "Russian Circles" which he raved about.

simoon

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Yeah, even the best recorded metal recordings, are not that great.

I listen to quit a bit or progressive metal and technical metal, and overall, I would guess that they are recorded a bit better than most other types of metal. Although, since I don't listen to other types of metal, this is only conjecture on my part.

The reason why I would make this assumption is, that since these types of bands take a lot of musical cues from 70's progressive music, much of that 70's influence still hangs around in prog-metal and technical-metal. Like: musical intricacy/complexity, use of broad dynamic range, extremely high levels of musicianship, and long form pieces with changes in mood, intensity, emotional content. All of which tend to to have more impact with better recordings.

All that being said, dynamic range is still where prog and technical metal fall apart. Most still lack dynamic range, but most do have good detail and frequency response.

The Swedish prog-metal band, Pain of Salvation, tend of have quite detailed recordings. Unless you get the vinyl versions, then the dynamic range is quite good. Their best recordings (musically speaking) are: One Hour by the Concrete Lake, Perfect Element, Remedy Lane, In the Passing Light of Day

The US band, The Contortionist, also have decent sounding recordings, except with regards to dynamic range. Their 2014 release, Language, is pretty detailed. And considering the level of complexity in their music, it takes a decent recording to hear all the intricacies of what they are doing.

The British band, Tesseract, is similar to the above. Their album, Altered State is reasonably well recorded.

The aforementioned Opeth, have pretty good recordings. Their latest recordings are the best overall, and even have a good level of dynamic range. But then, their latest recordings (Heritage, Pale Communion, Sorceress, In Cauda Venenum) are really not metal albums. They are firmly in the prog-rock genre.

There are so many really amazing prog-metal, technical-metal, experimental-metal albums that would have been so much better served by more dynamic range, and overall better recording quality.

Diablo Swing Orchestra, uneXpect, Spastic Ink, Cynic, Thank You Scientist, Wolverine, Sun Caged just to name a few others.

Interesting thing is, if you go to the Loudness War dynamic range data base site, many of these bands reissued their recordings on vinyl, and they invariably have better dynamic range.

https://dr.loudness-war.info/

Huck

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Yeah, even the best recorded metal recordings, are not that great.

I listen to quit a bit or progressive metal and technical metal, and overall, I would guess that they are recorded a bit better than most other types of metal. Although, since I don't listen to other types of metal, this is only conjecture on my part.

The reason why I would make this assumption is, that since these types of bands take a lot of musical cues from 70's progressive music, much of that 70's influence still hangs around in prog-metal and technical-metal. Like: musical intricacy/complexity, use of broad dynamic range, extremely high levels of musicianship, and long form pieces with changes in mood, intensity, emotional content. All of which tend to to have more impact with better recordings.

All that being said, dynamic range is still where prog and technical metal fall apart. Most still lack dynamic range, but most do have good detail and frequency response.

The Swedish prog-metal band, Pain of Salvation, tend of have quite detailed recordings. Unless you get the vinyl versions, then the dynamic range is quite good. Their best recordings (musically speaking) are: One Hour by the Concrete Lake, Perfect Element, Remedy Lane, In the Passing Light of Day

The US band, The Contortionist, also have decent sounding recordings, except with regards to dynamic range. Their 2014 release, Language, is pretty detailed. And considering the level of complexity in their music, it takes a decent recording to hear all the intricacies of what they are doing.

The British band, Tesseract, is similar to the above. Their album, Altered State is reasonably well recorded.

The aforementioned Opeth, have pretty good recordings. Their latest recordings are the best overall, and even have a good level of dynamic range. But then, their latest recordings (Heritage, Pale Communion, Sorceress, In Cauda Venenum) are really not metal albums. They are firmly in the prog-rock genre.

There are so many really amazing prog-metal, technical-metal, experimental-metal albums that would have been so much better served by more dynamic range, and overall better recording quality.

Diablo Swing Orchestra, uneXpect, Spastic Ink, Cynic, Thank You Scientist, Wolverine, Sun Caged just to name a few others.

Interesting thing is, if you go to the Loudness War dynamic range data base site, many of these bands reissued their recordings on vinyl, and they invariably have better dynamic range.

https://dr.loudness-war.info/

 Nice list you have there and I will check them out,although I have heard already most of your list.
I am an old dog,so for me there are basically five genres...Rock(metal is in there),Country,Jazz,Classical and Rap.
Although a title may have good Dynamic Range numbers,that unfortunately does not equate to good sounding,IMHO.
Ever listen to "Avalon" by Roxy Music,now I call that 'Rock' and also a good recording,which is what I am talking about regarding good sounding music.Thanks,Huck 8)

simoon

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Nice list you have there and I will check them out,although I have heard already most of your list.
I am an old dog,so for me there are basically five genres...Rock(metal is in there),Country,Jazz,Classical and Rap.
Although a title may have good Dynamic Range numbers,that unfortunately does not equate to good sounding,IMHO.
Ever listen to "Avalon" by Roxy Music,now I call that 'Rock' and also a good recording,which is what I am talking about regarding good sounding music.Thanks,Huck 8)

I get what you are saying about the five genres, but it seems to miss a lot of music. Like, which of your 5 genres would: Celtic folk from France fit? Does R&B fit in your rock genre, or should you add another genre? Which genre does ambient music fit? How about Musique Concrete? What about Delta blues (one person singing and playing a guitar)?

And yes, I agree, metal is a subgenre of rock. But that does not also exclude metal of having subgenres of its own.

For me, I care more about the structure of the music, and less about the genre it falls into.

The things I enjoy in music, are most or all of the following attributes (no particular order): very high levels of musicianship, deep and broad emotional and/or intellectual content, complexity, (usually) long format multipart pieces, avoidance of verse>chorus>bridge>repeat structure, hooks or catchy melodies are unimportant to me. And let me be clear, I did make a conscious decision to only like music that has these attributes, it is just how my tastes evolved over time.

Once those attributes above are met, I am almost 'genre agnostic'. In other words, the subgenres of metal that I like, I like them because they have most or all of those attributes above. The fact that they are a subgenre of metal is unimportant to me.

The genres and subgenres that fit those attributes:

Prog - classic prog, Canterbury, avant-prog, Zeuhl, prog-metal
Jazz - fusion, post-bop, chamber-jazz, M-Base, avant-garde, free jazz
Classical - serialism, atonal, avant-garde, spectralism, contemporary


Huck

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I get what you are saying about the five genres, but it seems to miss a lot of music. Like, which of your 5 genres would: Celtic folk from France fit? Does R&B fit in your rock genre, or should you add another genre? Which genre does ambient music fit? How about Musique Concrete? What about Delta blues (one person singing and playing a guitar)?

And yes, I agree, metal is a subgenre of rock. But that does not also exclude metal of having subgenres of its own.

For me, I care more about the structure of the music, and less about the genre it falls into.

The things I enjoy in music, are most or all of the following attributes (no particular order): very high levels of musicianship, deep and broad emotional and/or intellectual content, complexity, (usually) long format multipart pieces, avoidance of verse>chorus>bridge>repeat structure, hooks or catchy melodies are unimportant to me. And let me be clear, I did make a conscious decision to only like music that has these attributes, it is just how my tastes evolved over time.

Once those attributes above are met, I am almost 'genre agnostic'. In other words, the subgenres of metal that I like, I like them because they have most or all of those attributes above. The fact that they are a subgenre of metal is unimportant to me.

The genres and subgenres that fit those attributes:

Prog - classic prog, Canterbury, avant-prog, Zeuhl, prog-metal
Jazz - fusion, post-bop, chamber-jazz, M-Base, avant-garde, free jazz
Classical - serialism, atonal, avant-garde, spectralism, contemporary
Thanks,Huck :thumb:

Jeff_From_Michigan

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I tried to get into Patient #9 for the fourth time last night and have taken it off of my routine listening rotation,sounds too muck like A.M. radio.Huck

Huck, please let us know if you come across some real good sounding metal albums.  My favorite band in high school was Deep Purple, and I was lucky enough to see them at Olympia in Detroit. (Yes, I recognize where the "Everything Louder Than Everything Else" thread title comes from. LOL) But man, I've had a hard time finding any CD's or streams of them that sound great. I gave all of my albums and my turntable to my DJ brother many years ago, and although I have no doubt that analog may well sound better than streaming, I can't start over down that rabbit hole.

Huck

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Huck, please let us know if you come across some real good sounding metal albums.  My favorite band in high school was Deep Purple, and I was lucky enough to see them at Olympia in Detroit. (Yes, I recognize where the "Everything Louder Than Everything Else" thread title comes from. LOL) But man, I've had a hard time finding any CD's or streams of them that sound great. I gave all of my albums and my turntable to my DJ brother many years ago, and although I have no doubt that analog may well sound better than streaming, I can't start over down that rabbit hole.

This is my own opinion,so I don't want to start any arguments,but DP have excellent musicianship....but their sound quality(recordings,CD,streams) was (is)not that great.(IMO).
I have had my streamer for about 15 months now and it is something I thought I would never want,but after being able to find and listen to new music,some which sound like AM radio,some better quality,I basically I listen to mainly it now.

I don't think I have listened to more than 2 CD's since owning the streamer,for which it sounds almost as good as my CD player and I have only bought maybe 2 CD's,just to compare titles listening through streaming and CD player.

Two titles I can say for sure sound pretty good (to me) are "Youthanasia" by Megadeth(streaming),this one is very close to my 2 CD versions ."Godsmack","The Oracle","Awake",all 3 by Godsmack(CD's),but they sound good streamed also. Check them out and let me know what you think.
Some songs are meh,but most sound good :thumb:Huck
« Last Edit: 26 Jan 2023, 04:07 pm by Huck »

Eric F

I really like Judas Preist's sound. Very clear and clean for metal. Sad Wings of Destiny is a great listen. Very raw but in a good way. If you don't like screaming though......

Eric F

A lot of the hair bands had ok sounding stuff. RATT, Scorpions, Dokken but a lot of that music was terrible IMHO (I liked those bands) Danzig, his stuff is really clean sounding and very heavy. Type O Negative. Sorry I'll  stop.

Jeff_From_Michigan

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Huck, I agree with you on both Deep Purple's amazing musicianship and the SQ of Youthanasia - a very good sounding release. 

I don't listen to much metal any more, and I just tried putting Godsmack's self-titled album on and it wasn't my cup of tea. (The fact that I had Bill Evans "You Must Believe In Spring" playing right before it had my mind in a different place, I guess.) I didn't have it on long enough or loud enough to comment on the SQ.

Out of curiosity, what do you think of the sound of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and "And Justice For All"? I kind of like them.

Cool thread.  Looking for more recs!

Huck

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Huck, I agree with you on both Deep Purple's amazing musicianship and the SQ of Youthanasia - a very good sounding release. 

I don't listen to much metal any more, and I just tried putting Godsmack's self-titled album on and it wasn't my cup of tea. (The fact that I had Bill Evans "You Must Believe In Spring" playing right before it had my mind in a different place, I guess.) I didn't have it on long enough or loud enough to comment on the SQ.

Out of curiosity, what do you think of the sound of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and "And Justice For All"? I kind of like them.

Cool thread.  Looking for more recs!
Try Pineapple Thief's "Your Wilderness","Versions of the Truth" and "Give it Back",all songs are pretty well recorded,but some of their other stuff,not so good,I think and I only like 3 or 4 titles.
I tried to send you some rec's,but you have me blocked.Send me PM if you like and I can give you some of my other rec's. Huck
« Last Edit: 27 Jan 2023, 08:28 pm by Huck »

Huck

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A lot of the hair bands had ok sounding stuff. RATT, Scorpions, Dokken but a lot of that music was terrible IMHO (I liked those bands) Danzig, his stuff is really clean sounding and very heavy. Type O Negative. Sorry I'll  stop.
I agree! Some good,some not so good!
Too bad I didn't have the streamer 'back then',I could have auditioned some music and saved me some bucks when buying crappy sounding recordings! Huck :scratch:
« Last Edit: 27 Jan 2023, 08:32 pm by Huck »