Metallica's "classic" albums (the first 4) are far from perfect in terms of sound quality, but the big difference is that they all came out before the "loudness war" started, so they're all mastered at a relatively low volume. Those don't sound "good" because of the overall recording quality/lack of bass. This album is just...painfully loud.
Yeah, the album sounds like a distorted mess, even at a reasonable volume. I also have beef with the bass being too low in the mix. While, it isn't at the non-existent level (ala ...And Justice For All), it's still too low.
See, I dont hear that at all. I hear the clipping but it isnt a distorted mess. I have listened to it in my car over 20 times by now and it sounds fine. Its just weird that its a big deal for everyone and I can hardly notice it.
For those of you that think the album is mixed like shit, the Guitar Hero version has leaked and apparently has much better sound quality. The tracks were actually ripped from the game at 320 kb/s.
Does it sound weird when I say that The Day That Never Comes sounds alot like Fade To Black and not One?
I guess it's at least not like Justice, and you don't spend the vast majority of the album thinking "If you could actually hear bass this would beat everything else they've ever done". That's the case with me anyway.
In Zavvi they've started selling shirts with the covers of their first four albums on them. I might get one of the Justice ones, I mean it'd be better than that Dillinger Escape Plan one where they got the release date wrong.
I think really hard to hear bass is just a fact of Metallica albums people should be used to by now. Even the albums with Cliff on them weren't particularly bass-happy, other than the instrumental tracks.