@mechamagica I wonder if the source makes a difference, Im using apple music and I think the album is mastered for itunes. I dont see the album listed here yet https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=mastodon&album=

the mix is okay for me insofar as it sounds less terrible than every other mastodon record to my ears.

Album Rating: 4.5

Yeah, both of you are right. Specially important is what Sabrutin said. Many times vinyls will have a different, dedicated master that will sound more dynamic. I normally write the label to get to know that, but I dislike that practice because I don't want to be buying vinyls to enjoy a non-compressed album. Their excuse is that CDs will be mostly played in the car or while throwing a party so you want it to be loud, but that's not the case for people like me, so I would love if companies offered the posibility to buy the CD and get the vinyl master as a digital download (this has been done actually, but very rarely). Recent cases of Vinyls sounding way more dynamic than the CDs are Ulcerate, Vader and Hideous Divinity.

Album Rating: 3.5

"the mix is okay for me insofar as it sounds less terrible than every other mastodon record to my ears."



Heresy

yea I kept ulcerate vinyl rips for that purpose. the sound bothers me for other reasons and the practice itself bothers me more.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Common dudes, its sludge

insightful

Album Rating: 3.5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwfy5jEDWDI



dd is this sludge

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Idk @work

btw I want to invite peeps to keep an eye on CDs because good-sounding ones still exist. Earache for example recently repressed some classic stuff with full dynamic range on CD, like for example Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness. In this case you can easily recognize the edition because it has a sticker

Album Rating: 4.5

This conversation made me want to know the numbers of this CDs DR so I passed it throgh foobar2000 and it seems this one is DR6, which is basically as loud as everything they've done after Leviathan. Leviathan and Remission were both a bit more dynamic (DR7). Blood Mountain and OMRtS are their loudest albums at DR5.

@Sabrutin right buddy! I bought the Altars of Madness Full Dynamic Range reissue and it sounds fantastic!

I think Hunter is a solid album, while suffers in the shadows of its predecessors, I think it is clearly an album of the band having a good time, trying things out, taking a step back from being serious while while still writing classic mastodon tunes. They haven’t release a banger like Spectrelight since.

Album Rating: 2.5

'Ah okay so a higher percentage of accessible "poppy" elements, makes sense. Maybe it's just me but I think more metal should be poppy.'



And here we are thinking Sow had changed for the better, lol. Metal can and will continue to be 'poppy' (at times), but there's a reason why a large % of it isn't. We certainly don't need more of it from where I'm sitting - although I won't say it requires eradicating either, because that's just as silly.

Album Rating: 4.5

Agreed about the Hunter being solid and about keeping poppy elements mostly at bay haha

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This is better than you think it is and I know you have it in you Demon.

he's just looking for stuff he enjoys. I don't think he is seeking to destroy extreme metal but I have been wrong before!

Album Rating: 2.5

'Hahahahahah! Yeah Dynamic range is very important to enjoy music for me. Sometimes there are exceptions of albums that doesn't end up being fatiguing with low DR, but 95% of the time is just unbearable.' (2)



A major factor in why I'm struggling with the new Archspire. Sometimes it's really difficult hearing past these things. The loudness war struggles are real.



Also agree with Pika re Still Life, I have an old CD/audio file (that I ripped myself) which I usually listen to and then one day I checked the Spotify version for 'convenience' and got a shock. At first I didn't understand why it sounded so surprisingly shitty, but it became apparent later that the 2 'versions' (or whatever) were actually different. I need a better set-up to help avoid these situations.

Album Rating: 4.0

I wouldn’t say this is ‘poppy’ but there are solid vocal hooks and more of a focus on songwriting than riffs.



If you want pop-metal, look no further than Addicted by Devin Townsend.

Album Rating: 3.5

God this album drags on

i have the cd for the same still life remaster that is on spotify and i wouldn't say it sounds a lot different but, again, i am old and decrepit