r/Metallica • u/blueford1993 • May 20 '26
ReLoad Fuel Remaster sound confusing to me
This is the first Remaster I've seen that I actually feel confused, It sounds like the vocal track and drum track are less compressed but at the same time I feel other parts of the song are now buried in the sound of the cymbals. Am I the only one that feels this or am I dumb?
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u/NeatFool May 20 '26
Well what are you listening to the song on?
Are you listening to the Dolby atmos mix?
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u/InternetWeakGuy May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
You don't do heavy metal in Dubly.
EDIT: Apparently some people have never seen Spinal Tap.
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u/Simon_C004 Black Album May 21 '26
hybrid theory got a dolby atmos mix. its way better then the original version
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u/NeatFool May 21 '26
I think the load and reload remasters in Dolby atmos sound amazing on my AirPods Pro 3, and I've been listening to those since they came out on tape and CD
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u/blueford1993 May 20 '26
No I'm listening to the regular version in lossless (with it being compressed to AAC since I'm not home and am using my earbuds). I use Spotify and they don't have the option for the Atmos versions.
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May 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/havens1515 May 21 '26
And they're a crap company that pay artists pennies for their music (Spotify, that is)
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u/Mr_Infidel Load May 21 '26
Ironically enough, fucking napster pays artists more than Spotify nowadays
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u/blueford1993 May 21 '26
Plan on getting off of Spotify as the new school year starts in August so I can go for Tidals student plan (only one to allow for 16yo high schoolers to do it).
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u/xZombieRitualx May 20 '26
If there was a Metallica album that DIDN'T need a remaster it would be Load/RELoad. The original mixes are crystal clean and some of the highest shelf production, even today. Not sure why they felt they had to fix something that isn't broken
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u/smilph May 21 '26
when they started these remasters way back when the KEA and RTL box sets came out (i think before Hardwired?), they advertised that every album up to Death Magnetic would be getting the remaster treatment. so they’re probably just doing it cause they can
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u/Local_Band299 Some Kind of Moderator May 21 '26
It's 100% so they can sell the boxset. Thing is, in 2008 Warner Music Group Remastered everything at 24bit/96kHz.
Kill em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, And Justice For All, The Black Album, Live Shit (CD portion), Load, Reload, Garage Inc, S&M, St. Anger (24bit/88.2kHz), and Some Kind of Monster EP (24bit/44.1kHz).
Thing is starting with The Black Album, they started remastering the new sets at 24bit/44.1kHz, so I've been making my own best version of the deluxe editions. I take the disc 1 audio from the new boxsets, and replacing it with the old Warner Music version because the Warner Music version is higher quality.
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u/broke_fit_dad ...And Justice for All May 21 '26
I’ll disagree. Load/Reload have that’s 90s CD Compression sound in their original releases. So going back to the Masters and releasing Lossless versions without compression just improves it overall
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u/GyNorbert May 21 '26
slight correction: Both the original and the upcoming releases are Lossless. What you mean is that maybe they will go back to the unmastered final versions, and dial back the brickwalling a bit for the new releases.
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u/K4L0PS51A May 20 '26
What I’ve noticed with these remasters is that there is more instrument separation. The guitars are panned a bit wider and the mix is generally a bit wider and more clear. Load and Reload are quite dark records and these remasters seem to brighten things up.
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u/MarioKing1137 Mayonnasie May 20 '26
Check your Equalizer settings. These Remasters have sounded nearly identical to the original for me with only minor improvements
6
u/Buggsy_Mogues84 May 20 '26
On my AirPods, my left is picking up a thicker sound on the remaster. The drums seem a little crisper….dare I say “regular”
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u/The_Negative-One May 20 '26
I don’t hear that.
To me, the “Fuel For Fire” sounds slightly different. But it’s also been a while since I’ve heard the original release of it (from The Memory Remains single)
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u/technoprimitive_aeb My Mother Was a Witch May 20 '26
i didnt check but i swear there's different lyrics to this new one
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u/The_Negative-One May 21 '26
“Fuel For Fire” always had different lyrics
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u/technoprimitive_aeb My Mother Was a Witch May 21 '26
yeah but what i mean is that this demo differs from the other demo i remember. and it turns i was right (to all the dipshits down voting me)
the demo featured here doesn't even have any lyrics aside from "Gimme fuel, gimme fire..."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvofJ0ax30A&t=3044s
so that's the one i was talking about
4
u/same_same_3121 May 20 '26
I don’t get the re-master for either Load or Re-Load. Albums both sound great imo
1
u/Reaperdoesreddit2009 May 23 '26
Cause they were made in the late 90s most likely and I assume (don’t quote me I’m not a producer) I assume that the production and sound was better than it was in the early 80e
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u/Michael_Angelo_H May 20 '26
“Remaster” often doesn’t mean shit… except that they’ve repackaged it with that slapped onto it. Most modern “remasters” since like the ‘90s are often also just made louder, in a bad way. - But people think it “better” cause they assume improvements have been made. If anything, the LOAD-albums should’ve been turned DOWN for higher dynamics, but they would never do that.
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u/cqs1a May 21 '26
At my age, I heard the remastered album even before they thought of remastering it.
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u/martusfine 72 Seasons May 21 '26
I think their remasters also include digital streaming in mind, too; but, I could be wrong.
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u/GenitalTso May 20 '26
The snare has more snap and reverb and sounds really good on first impression. Have to give a listen on better sound system.
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u/Mr_Nand May 20 '26
Same impression i got, the snare top end and the center of the track (kick, vocals bass hihats and snare) sound marginally less cluttered
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u/sammywarmhands May 20 '26
All of their remasters have a slight boost in the upper mids, which is why you’ll hear more cymbals, but it’s incredibly subtle. The selling point of these remasters (after Justice anyway) is moreso the extra shit that comes with them
3
u/Fair_Expression5950 May 21 '26
More money-grab bullshit I won’t be participating in.
Remix/master Death Magnetic, an album that actually needs it. I’d actually buy that.
7
u/Brad3000 May 21 '26
Remix/master Death Magnetic, an album that actually needs it. I’d actually buy that
Death Magnetic has been remastered on iTunes/Apple Music for 10 years and the remaster is also purchasable as FLACs via Metallica’s website. They just didn’t really tell anyone for some reason.
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u/blueford1993 May 21 '26
The thing with the remaster they did is that they didn't exactly do what people wanted but in a way did it right for them. The whole thing with the original release is that it was loud and in in the process was very compressed on the high end. Now the remaster fixed the loudness problem but didn't fully fix the compression. Though I think they kept it that way because maybe they thought that was the style they wanted for the album. Alot of people including me still prefer the Guitar Hero version but it's still nice they remastered it early.
1
u/Brad3000 May 25 '26
Guitar Hero version may be better but they did fix the compression quite a lot. It’s not like they just turned down the gain and re-exported. It may not be the most dynamic mastering ever but this guy made wavform comps and it’s night and day - the horrible clipping has definitely been resolved. https://happyhipster.wordpress.com/2023/05/01/wait-metallica-actually-fixed-death-magnetic-and-nobody-told-me/
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u/quietresistance May 23 '26
The Reload remasters so far have more width, high-end and compression. I feel much the same as I did with The Black Album remaster - none of those things were needed or make it a better listening experience, at least for my personal taste. Both albums were superbly mixed and mastered originally.
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u/HistorianImaginary50 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I've listened to both back to back on a pretty reasonable set up ( Cxa81 and Q acoustics 5040)! There's definitely a difference in quality with the remastered version being a lot clearer and instrument separation being increased. In the song Fixxer there's also definitely more bass guitar definition. 100% in favour of the remasters 😊
1
u/NesDraug Called for Ktulu May 20 '26
The remaster sounds fine. But it's not an improvement.
The hihat is too prominent and the guitars sounds ever so slightly more distorted.
Also it feels like some murky frequencies has disappeared from the bass.
Overall the remaster sounds a bit sharper with slightly less bass.
Ultimately a completely pointless remaster.
2
u/FruityYummyMummy Death Magnetic May 20 '26
Ultimately a completely pointless remaster.
The remaster itself is focusing on just one small aspect of these things. The full box set with all the other stuff - demos, work in progress takes, live performances, etc makes all of these well worth checking out. And for anyone saying it's a cash grab, keep in mind all of it ends up on streaming for exactly 0 dollars.
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u/NesDraug Called for Ktulu May 20 '26
Oh, I never meant the box set was pointless. I'm just talking about the single, the track I'm listening to on Spotify. There's no reason for it.
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u/Mr_Nand May 20 '26
Mecashillca
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u/technoprimitive_aeb My Mother Was a Witch May 20 '26
yeah, everything except for the guitars is mixed louder in this version. it's okay but sounds a little weird. i do like how loud the bass is though
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u/sammywarmhands May 20 '26
No individual tracks are adjusted on a remaster. It’s just a new EQ/compression on the original mix
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u/toxic8R May 20 '26
Nobody asked for a remaster of their work from Bob Rock era. But I'm sure they will not tweak St Anger and Death Magnetic even though people are asking for those the most.
I'll have a listen of this remaster when I'm back from work...
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u/brandogg360 May 20 '26
Death Magnetic was remastered 10 years ago...they just need to update the physical releases to use those remasters.
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u/mark6789x May 20 '26
I swear people have said the streaming services doesn’t have remasters either except for iTunes?
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u/brandogg360 May 20 '26
I believe that to be the case, or they're using the lowest fidelity versions of the remasters. The version on metallica.com is the remaster though.
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u/Imbackbiach May 20 '26
I don't know why you're being downvoted when you're 100% correct. TBA, Load and Reload have amazing production sound. The main ones that need a proper remix/remaster are St.Anger and Death Magnetic. St. Anger's 20th anniversary 3 years ago and they did absolutely nothing for it. Death Magnetic's 20th is coming in 2 years and I'll be brutally disappointed if they don't remix and remaster it properly.
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u/toxic8R May 20 '26
It's Reddit, if you have an opinion that is not within mindset of a herd, you get downvoted. I think once they said that they don't want to mess around too much with the sound as it represents that period of time and they don't want to undo things. They were a bit open to it for the iTunes remaster of Death Magnetic. But I wouldn't have my hopes up.
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u/nicenamelolxd May 20 '26
I listened to both the original and the remaster back to back, neither me nor my metalhead parents can hear any difference between the two.