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At the end of 1987, Testament played some now-legendary shows here in the Bay Area. Those shows really placed the band at the front of the burgeoning thrash metal scene, established the "Bay Area crunch."
When we returned to school for the Winter '88 quarter, two of my high school friends could not wait, to tell me about this new band they saw at The Stone. Hmmm, maybe that is why, each time we went up to Broadway Street, the intro to "Apocalyptic City" seemed to linger over that hill, just shy of Coit Tower.
That subset of audiophiles who listen to rock music know that Testament now have a new album out, called Brotherhood Of The Snake, on Nuclear Blast records. The title track has appeared fairly regularly on contemporary rock radio. Anyway, since most of the band was scattered, founding member Eric Peterson wrote the songs, which show his penchant for relying on riffs. Though the parts were recorded at various times and locations, the final production pulls 'em all together, and sounds cohesive.
The first 2 minutes of "The Pale King" (see below) hearken back to 1990, sounds like something from Forbidden or Vio-lence. Other songs are reminiscent of Exodus' Tempo Of The Damned, while the rest has Testament sounding like a modern version of Reign In Blood-era Slayer. My favorite may be "Neptune's Spear," parts of which get your feet moving, a la late-80s vintage Exodus.
A major reason why we music fans do not buy CDs is that manufacturers, for some dumb reason, add compression. The compression just ruins the music.
Thank you, Steve [you know your moniker], for sending me a Japanese pressing of Brotherhood Of The Snake [pictured above, listed as Ward Records GQCS-90231]. This copy does NOT have any added compression. Thus, the music retains its speed, and does not have its top cut off. Now you can marvel at Gene Hoglan's machine-like drumming, and bassist Steve DiGiorgio playing like it's 1990 all over again. And yes, you clearly hear the modern-day guitars, which do not have the bite, distortion, and character of those from the late-80s. No, the Japanese pressing does not magically turn this monophonic recording into something with space between images, and soundstage width, depth, and height.
Is Brotherhood Of The Snake going to win over any of the audiophiles who do not like rock music? Highly unlikely. But the Japanese pressing shows us that, if record companies would put out good-sounding material, (a) it'd do justice to the music, and (b) we'd have a stronger reason to buy it.
My audiophile friends have sent me a small smattering of not-from-America CDs of popular music. Some of which is very interesting, not just from the musical perspective, but in terms of sonics. It's very educational, and the rest of us audiophiles need to take a listen. Stay tuned.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
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nt
Responsible, inquisitive, mature, learned, and music-loving audiophiles roll up their sleeves, do the hard work, and make the comparisons.If you get the Nuclear Blast CD of Testament's Brotherhood Of The Snake , listeners will react to the compression, with body language which reads, "This doesn't feel right." And it doesn't matter if you play it in your car, or on your megabuck home stereo. The Nuclear Blast copy sounds crumpled and squashed, versus the free-sounding Japanese pressing.
Keeping playing the Nuclear Blast CD. One of the moms puffs up her cheeks. That is her way of saying that the images are bloated and ill-defined.
Adding compression to vocal tracks make them sound rougher and more gruff. There aren't any female vocals on the Testament album, but if there were, too much compression can alter the timbre and texture of the woman's voice.
The sound of the cymbals seems cut-off, making listeners grit their teeth.
Have you ever made your own studio drum recordings? With proper microphone placements, you can capture the stick hitting the skin; the "shudder" and unique character of each wood or carbon-fiber drum; and the way each drum stroke then "lights up" the studio room's dimensions. Compression absolutely kills these relationships.
Have you ever seen Testament's drummer, Gene Hoglan, perform? I initially saw him in the early-90s, when he led Dark Angel, on their Time Does Not Heal tour. He really does play with a machine-like effortlessness, control, and precision. When Hoglan's drum recordings are compressed, his drumming sounds clunky or soft - which is wrong and plain offensive.
All this isn't new; in the early 90s, Stereophile's Dick Olsher complained about compression, and the way it alters and ruins the music, regardless of how loudly or quietly you play it back.
When you go from the Nuclear Blast to the Japanese pressing of Testament's Brotherhood Of The Snake the latter is like a breath of fresh air, its speed and note development left intact. As ones who value music, we audiophiles must continue to investigate and report on matters of sound quality.
-Lummy The Loch Monster
Edits: 12/18/16
Excellent summation- Lummy.
I will pick up the Import and not the U.S. domestic release.
We music lovers have always fought against compression on CD and jitter in our cd spinners.
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