(LA Times) Metallica's Death Magnetic album holds down a second week atop the national sales chart, which may be music to the ears of the speed metal band and its record label, but not to a growing number of fans who are squawking about what they're hearing. The album, which sold an additional 370,000 copies last week after moving 490,000 during its first three days in stores, is the subject of an online petition decrying the sound quality and demanding that it be remixed or remastered and re-released with improved audio. That petition contained more than 10,000 signatures as of this afternoon...
The debate swirling across the Internet also claims that a different version of the album, one that can be downloaded from the Guitar Hero III website for the Xbox and PlayStation game systems, sounds markedly better than the CD version or the conventional download. The thrust of the complaints is that the music has been sonically compressed - reducing the natural difference between the loudest and softest sounds - so that it would sound as loud as possible on CD. - more on this story
