Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

...about the butchering job that is the production on this album, and on an increasing number of other records nowadays. To be clear: I think this is a GREAT comeback by James, Lars, and Co. Probably a 4.5-star effort on the merits of the musical content. Highlights for me include "All Nightmare Long," "Unforgiven III," and "The Judas Kiss." What isn't a highlight for me is having my speakers sound like they're falling apart during all but the quietest portions of this record. It's completely unacceptable. For anyone reading this who has listened to either RHCP's "Californication" or Rush's "Vapor Trails," you probably noticed an oddly dissatisfying sound quality on those; lots of crackling and distortion where it shouldn't be. Well, "Death Magnetic" takes that phenomenon to a whole new level. As others have suggested, look up "loudness war" on Wikipedia if you want to learn more about why this album (and several others released from about 1999 onward) sounds so abysmal. On the incredibly heavy, addictive and adrenaline-pumping chorus of "All Nightmare Long," when I should be banging my head in euphoria, I'm instead trying to keep my lunch down because I'm hearing more crackles and pops than I am actual guitar tones. If you enjoy this record, that's great; as I already stated, I love the music on it too. So please, don't just casually dismiss this because I gave 1 star. I'm doing it because the only hope we have of preventing future albums from Metallica and other artists from being similarly butchered is to speak out against it, and let the music industry know that this practice is NOT going to increase sales, as they seem to believe.