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Are there any good sounding Metal albums?

Pearljam5000

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Unfortunately most Metal albums sound like crap because of their SQ and i don't like listening to them (even though i like the music itself)
Would love some recommendations, thanks.
 
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Pearljam5000

Pearljam5000

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What is it about them you don't like? Newer stuff? Older? Bands like Iron Maiden, Opeth, Katatonia and others have good sounding production, at least to me.
Can you be more specific?
Any genre is good, I'm trying to be open to new music, thanks
 

deprogrammed

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Unfortunately most Metal albums sound like crap because of their SQ and i don't like listening to them (even though i like the music itself)
Would love some recommendations, thanks.
Is Tool metal? Their stuff seems pretty well recorded. Good music regardless. Rick Rubin recorded System of a Down. Not sure it is metal though. Still good music.
 

q3cpma

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This question doesn't make a lot of sense, as "bad" production is very often an essential part of the sound and ambiance. Traditional heavy metal can have a very good (in the conventional meaning: clear and well mixed) sound, see Danzig or Black Sabbath.
Some doom bands also manage this while still having enough grit to be called extreme metal: Church of Misery - And Then There Were None…, Confessor - Condemned, Penance - The Road Less Travelled, etc...
The hardest would be to find this in real extreme metal (death, black, industrial, etc...), which almost always sounds bad when they have a modern and streamlined sound. A very non exhaustive list of albums that aren't "too bad" (too lazy to go through my whole collection):
* At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours
* Bethlehem - Dictius te Necare
* Carcass - Heartwork
* Dark Tranquility - Skydancer
* Fear Factory - Demanufacture
* Golden Dawn - Masquerade
* Gorguts - Obscura
* Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

To be honest, I fear you'll never really get metal, with such a conformist view on "SQ".
 

Pretorious

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Death’s Symbolic is often considered a very well recorded and produced metal album. I always found it to be much better sounding than much of the other records within the genre. Give it a listen! Music is great, too, if you’re a fan of more intricate death metal.
 

Helicopter

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Morbid Angel's Kingdoms Disdained has the best recording quality of all their albums. Not over produced like the albums preceding it or lofi like the earlier work.
 

Sombreuil

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From what I've read from interviews, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) is really obsessed with sound in general, especially both mixing & mastering. He's even done it himself for a couple of albums I believe. I'd suggest In Absentia, Anesthetize and Deadwing.
Even though I'm not a big fan of the band, the album Awake by Dream Theater sounds pretty clean to me.
 

Wortifer

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I listen exclusively to metal, I have tons of stuff that sounds excellant. I get the majority of my new (to me) music from bandcamp.com , they have many download formats including mp3, flac etc. Stuff I cant download, I'll purchase the CD and rip.

A few examples:

Deeds of Flesh
Archspire
Whitechaple
Vader
Allegaeon
Shadows of Intent
Carach Angren
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Insomnium
Baest
Vildhjarta
Benighted
Cytotoxin

Etc. Etc. Etc. I have tons more recomendations. Just let me know what you like and it would be my pleasure to continue to grow both our metal minds.
 

escape2

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From what I've read from interviews, Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) is really obsessed with sound in general, especially both mixing & mastering. He's even done it himself for a couple of albums I believe. I'd suggest In Absentia, Anesthetize and Deadwing.
Even though I'm not a big fan of the band, the album Awake by Dream Theater sounds pretty clean to me.
PT is good, but it's not metal. :) Wilson's solo album Hand.Cannot.Erase is also good.

And if we are allowed to include prog rock/post rock, then there are some other good recordings out there such as...

Innerspace - Echoes,
pg.lost - Oscillate,
Distant Dream - Point of View,
Human Factor - Observer.
 
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