Reviews

A lot of people seem to be upset at the job that the engineers did when mastering Metallica's latest album, "Death Magnetic". They complain that the mastering was simply too loud, obliterating all details in the sound. Indeed, many people prefer to download the "Guitar Hero III" videogame version, which, for some strange reason, has a much quieter, more accessible sound. I bought the original, but still found the "GH3" version as well.

The following is a culmination of this public frustration, expressed as a parody of Metallica's classic song, "Master of Puppets." It was posted on the forum of a famous producer, Andy Sneap. I loved it so much that decided to post it here.

MASTERED BY MUPPETS (lyrics by Dan Weapon)

End of session day, Rubin works away:
I'm your source of song-destruction
Tunes that hurt you ear, poor sound engineer
Leaving spikes on my instruction
Trust me you will see
Volume’s all you need
Dedicated to
How I'll limit you

Compressing faster
Limit your Master
Your albums sell faster
With a loud Master
Master

Mastered by muppets, brickwalling your dreams
Clipping, distorting and smashing extremes
Ruined by me, you can't hear a thing…
Just spiking snares, and auto-tuned screams
Mastered
Mastered
Rubin’s my name, and I'll hear you scream
Bastard
Bastard

Need to mix this way, never you dismay
”Loud” makes death magnetic clearer
Gain monopoly, ritual Waves L3
Squash your tracks til it’s severe
Gate and you will see
More and more dB
Dedicated to
How I’m killing you

Compressing faster
Limit your Master
Your albums sell faster
With a loud Master
Master

Mastered by muppets, brickwalling your dreams
Clipping, distorting and smashing extremes
Ruined by me, you can't hear a thing…
Just spiking snares, and auto-tuned screams
Mastered
Mastered
Rubin’s my name, and I'll hear you scream
Bastard
Bastard

Master, Master, where's the version I've been after?
Bearded, Bastard, you promised only lies
Blaster, Blaster, recorded on a ghetto blaster?
Laughter, laughter, laughing at those highs
Spike to me!

Lars ain’t worth all that – “natural” kick and hats
Kirk adds wah without a reason
Never ending phrase, Jaymz goes on for days
Rob, your shirt is out of season…
I’ll record til 5 (then)
I will help you buy
Sandals that suit you
Now you look cool too !

I enjoyed it a lot. In spite of a couple of messed up lyrics, malfunctioning equipment, and less than expected attendance, it was good. I received some warm words after the show. My voice held up the whole time, in fact, there was something left for a little private party later on. Many kudos to Jenya Monisova for organizing this gig. She is truly the best fan one can have.

This is a letter I have received from my buddy, a Swedish vocalist Urban Breed (ex-TAD MOROSE):

==============================================
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on how you saw this project
through. Impressive! Not because it's your first album (while this is true and it's somewhat
difficult not to have that in mind when listening) but because I think, overall, when you sing, it comes across as being sung
with that same conviction we spoke about earlier.

While you may not sing in a style that would normally appeal to me, it is a
style these songs for the most part demands. It is also not a style that makes me go, "Hey! That's a highly accomplished
singer", but nevertheless you had the hairs on my arms standing on end more than once over the course of the album.
That is far more important than impressive range and near perfect intonation. Occasionally, style-wise, there are times I wish you had backed off just a little but that's inevitable, I'm sure.

So a quick run through with some comments then, shall we?

The opening track, 'The One Who Was With Her Before' is an interesting
little number that keeps me interested throughout the track.
I find, however that the format with repeating the last two lines gets in
the way of the storytelling. Traditional, I know, and also, I'm sure, how
the song was originally performed, right?

'The Cab Meter' then. Excellent guitar playing. Very tasteful and I like the
sound. The vocal melody lines are a little too similar to the first track
but that's not your fault. It is after all how it's supposed to be.

'Seven Years of Blue'. I rather like this one. So much that I feel like
getting in there and changing things that would (to my ears) make
it catchier. First and foremost I would change the "Here are the storms and
the blue winters" into "Here are the storms and the winters blue". Oh, well,
never mind me...

'Everybody's Gone to War'. This is a captivating song. I just love the
lyrics here. Hmmm, no, I'll stop here and write some more about each song
while on the plane. I want to do your work justice. As I'm unfamiliar with
this style of music I need to focus on one track at a time. Writing my
review while listening intently and, quite possibly, repeatedly.

Btw, I was listening to this yesterday and at one point I was skipping to
the next song half-way through another when Belinda (my daughter) said; "No! I like this. Go back. You can't just skip
through songs like that."

Later then!

...Urban
=================================================

Urban and I in Chicago, April 2005

Friday 11/14/08, at 11 am, I will be interviewed by the Russian station, RADIO NADEZHDA (РАДИО НАДЕЖДА). I don't know anything about them or how to access them, but if you do, you can catch me with Nadezhda Braginskaya on her show, "ЖИВОЕ СЛОВО".

Also I'm still working on my video. It should be available some time in November. Thanks, Ken & Vadim!

To all that live in Pennsylvania and Ohio! I will be giving a concert (first since June) in Pittsburgh.

When: November 15, 2008 at 6pm
Where: Connan Room, University Center, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213

The flier is coming.

Arina and I attended the Red Elvises show. Check out this link for the pictures:

http://www.russianmix.com/photos/7948/

It's been my 7th festival in Atlanta. It was awesome, better than the last one. It was a huge pleasure seeing my friends from all over America: boBBie, Summeet, and Sauron again, as well as meeting Sym and his wonderful girlfriend Vickie! You guys rock!

The festival itself was pretty good. Pathosray and St. Deamon were pretty good, but kinda one-dimensional for me (especially St. Deamon... I thought the Hammerfalls of the world are no longer fashionable), and I skipped the prog monsters of Riverside and Spheric Universe Experiment, but all others kicked my ass nice and hard.

Manticora was alright (although the lead singer kept striking poses a-la Spinal Tap). Gamma Ray was amazing, they haven't missed a step since 2002 (although Kai's chewing gum was somewhat irritating). Helloween was good (although I vehemently disagree with those who said Deris nailed every Kiske note... not even close), and a couple of unexpected numbers like "Mr. Torture" and "March Of Time" was terrific. The albums "TOTO," "BTL," "RDCE," and "K3" were represented by the total of TWO HALVES OF A SONG (half of "I Can" and half of "Power"). The two bands joining on stage (Kai and Weiki -- for the first time in 20 years) was a magical moment, worthy of PP's legacy.

Elvenking was good too (although they had some vocals sound problems). Andromeda was good (although I'm completely unfamiliar with their material), and their guitarist was phenomenal. Iron Savior was very energetic (although they had even more problems, and Piet kept screwing up the lyrics and even the first few notes in "Breaking The Law"). Amorphis was the biggest surprise: I haven't seen a man sing so well in both clean and gruff tones, and the music was terrific too. I only own "Tales" (1994), but now I guess I have to check more into them. Great energy.

Rob Rock was clearly the best vocalist of the festival, and the material was very solid. His guitarist was also amazing. Mustache was not all that "odd": simple, by the numbers, old-school metal with a slight 70s tinge, reminding of early Sabbath. Jon Oliva's Savatage was exactly as expected: awesome throughout. Iced Earth, again, somewhat unexpectedly, put on a killer blast of a show, sounding as tight as ever, with a good setlist (I'm surprised they only played one song off of "The Dark Saga," but that's fine... I've heard it plenty of times) and easily the best rhythm section of the festival. At the very end of the show Jon blew an amp and got pretty upset (I hope he didn't hurt anybody). Overall -- splendid.

My personal top:

Best vocalist: tie between Rob Rock & Tomi Joutsen (Amorphis)
Best solo guitarist: dude from Andromeda
Best rhythm guitarist: Jon Schaffer
Best bassist: dude from Iced Earth (don't remember who's in it now)
Best drummer: Chris Kinder (JOP)
Best other: tie between Jon Oliva & Elyghen (Elvenking)
Best band: Iced Earth
Best song: Gamma Ray "Heavy Metal Universe" (got everybody jumping)
Best moment: Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath playing side-by-side on "I Want Out"

I interviewed Jon Oliva and posted the interview today: READ IT HERE! I can't believe I only brought 10 copies of my cd: they were gone before I even noticed!!! Too bad, will have to bring some more next time.

Cheers,
V
NP: Volbeat "Rock The Rebel, Metal The Devil"

Piet Sielk of IRON SAVIOR                                                                     Zach Stevens of CIRCLE II CIRCLE / SAVATAGE

Hurray! After 10 months of trying, I finally received a "preliminary consent" to perform and distribute my translations of Vysotsky's songs from "Le Chant Du Monde," which owns the rights to his art outside of Russia. What does it mean exactly I cannot tell you at this point, because the contract is still to be drafted, but at least they gave me a green light for now!

Much appreciation go to two wonderful lawyers (an uncommon word combination) and ladies: Elina Mangassarian in Moscow and my own wife Arina in New York who worked very hard on getting "LCDM" to respond to my requests. You are awesome!

Another letter:

=================
Vadim

In most of the songs, I see a young man in a conflict he cannot win who, instead of spinning down into quiet depression, soldiers on often violently giving voice to his rage and his passion. I"m put off by his relationship with the women in his life - conflict ridden relationships filled with frustration and rejection so he gets no solace from them either. A Hemingway type macho gritty character - living hard and drinking hard - trying to live in a world that makes no sense. Justice never seems to win here, so it's living on in a world of injustice, trying to keep the powers that be from getting you down. A man's man. The Leonardo one made me giggle however.

The musicians are astoundingly talented.

I liked the range of tones in your voice from song to song.

I'd love to read translations of some of the love songs. You could really appreciate Vysotsky the actor when you listen to him sing. He still reminds me of Richard Burton in that both have a commanding presence, are brilliant, macho, and sexy, even without understanding a word he was singing.

An hour long live TV at RTN was pretty cool, except I screwed up my first two songs! Forgot the words, plain and simple. Other than that it went OK. The journalist, Boris Tenzer, was very nice and, above all, intelligent. We got several interesting phone calls there. I received a copy of the program and hopefully will post some fragments of it here.

My video for "Ships" was also aired. I am still a little dissatisfied with it and would like to do some re-editing. But if I won't, I will post it here the way it is right now: meat and potatoes.

I am going away for the ProgPower USA 9.0 Festival in Atlanta this Thursday. I hope to spread the word there a little bit. Stay put!

This Monday, September 15, at 10.30 am, I will be appearing on RTN (Russian Television Network of America), on the show "Contact" ("Контакт", ведущий - Борис Тенцер). If, by chance, you have access to RTN, check it out! It's an hour-long program, during which I should perform some songs live, as well as air a video.

RTN'S WEBSITE

All 120 pictures are here:

http://public.fotki.com/thysentinel/baltic-trip-septemb/

I'm currently on a trip to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland, thoroughly enjoying myself and the local scenery, both from the historic (cathedrals, streets, and houses) and the modern (restaurants and dance clubs) perspectives. I'm returning this Saturday though, so those of you who have ordered a cd: I will mail them out early next week. Thank you very much!

Updated the PHOTOS with pix from the Album Presentation on 3/24/08.