Best audiophile metal and rock albums
Jun 17, 2008 at 2:26 PM Post #3 of 525
Majority of metal albums have distortion or clipping in form or another especially in this loudness war era, but since the whole sound relies on distortion and sonic assault, its undestandable and small ones often go unnoticed aswell.

Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side (very good production. Loudness war shows signs, but otherwise it is very good sounding album)

Metallica - Master Of Puppets DCC Remaster (excellent production! Audiophile quality and stays well below peak limits. Original CD is quite badly mixed)

Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked (For loudness war deathmetal standards this is very well produced. Yes, its peaky and flat and loud, but it sounds good. And it isnt even nearly as plasticky sounding as their next album Ithyphallic)

Kreator - Coma Of Souls. (Very well produced. no clipping)
 
Jun 20, 2008 at 4:41 AM Post #4 of 525
I really like Dark Tranquillity's Skydancer from a SQ (and music) PoV. The vocals are a little deeper in the mix than usual, which takes some getting used to, but everything's so distinct and clean. Oodles of dynamic range, too.

Lateralus just gets better with your system
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. And it's excellent even on a crap system.
 
Jun 20, 2008 at 5:17 PM Post #8 of 525
Heres some that are above average to my ears:

In Flames - Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance.
Metallica - The Black Album
At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
Alice In Chains - Unplugged
Opeth - Ghost Reveries (one of my favs with Grado's and a tube amp)
Primus - Pork Soda. (really amazing production. some songs have a binaural feel to them)
Type O Negative - October Rust
 
Jun 21, 2008 at 6:32 AM Post #9 of 525
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cousin Patty /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Heres some that are above average to my ears:

In Flames - Jester Race/Black Ash Inheritance.
Metallica - The Black Album
At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
Alice In Chains - Unplugged
Opeth - Ghost Reveries (one of my favs with Grado's and a tube amp)
Primus - Pork Soda. (really amazing production. some songs have a binaural feel to them)
Type O Negative - October Rust



For weeks, that's all I listened to. It is just so absorbing in all aspects.
 
Jun 21, 2008 at 8:30 PM Post #11 of 525
Van Halen - 1984
Van Halen - OU812
Warlock - Triumph & Agony
The Stone Roses - The Very Best Of
Scorpions - Face The Heat
Poison - Open Up And Say...Aah!
Nirvana - In Utero
Night Ranger - Dawn Patrol
Metallica - Metallica
Genesis - We Can't Dance
Gary Moore - After The War
Extreme - Pornograffitti
Aerosmith - Pump

All varying-degrees of rock, from easy-going to hard.

ETA - grab these as well. Not touching the rock/metal bias, but damned-well produced albums that some 20-odd years later, can still show up differences between modern DACS...

Chris Rea - The Road To Hell
Chris de Burgh - Into The Light
Dire straits - Brothers In Arms

~Phewl
 
Jun 22, 2008 at 6:20 AM Post #12 of 525
Dream Theater - Awake
Symphony X - The Odyssey (Holy bass impact, Batman!)
Devin Townsend - Synchestra
Ayreon - Yeah, pretty much the whole discography
John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess - An Evening With... (don't know if this counts, they are metal stars after all)
Metallica - DCC Master of Puppets and DCC Ride the Lightning (and, despite the lack of bass guitar, ...And Justice for All sounds great)
Opeth - Damnation
Shadow Gallery - Room V (please, PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who listens to these brilliant virtuosos...)
 
Jun 23, 2008 at 4:50 AM Post #13 of 525
Gonna have to disagree with the Opeth - Damnation recommendation.. sounds ok but it's heavily compressed. such a shame since the music is great, but it sounds awful, which is why I'm on the lookout for the vinyl which apparently sounds a lot better. their latest album, Watershed, isn't quite as bad on the compression, so I'm thinking Damnation was Steven Wilson's doing.

DCC Gold Master of Puppets sounds amazing, as always with Steve Hoffman's work. in fact, any album remastered by Steve Hoffman sounds amazing, so have a look through his discography.
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Jun 23, 2008 at 7:13 AM Post #14 of 525
add

Mournful Congregation - The Monad of Creation
Saturnus - Paradise Belongs to You

(both sit around the -2.0 dB on replaygain, w00t!)
 

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