Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Metal

Hey guys... I know there's some metalheads out there. I've got a gift cert to iTunes burning a hole in my pocket, so I was poking around tonight. I didn't like any of the metal I heard (and most of it sounded the same) so I'm wondering if
a) I'm just getting old
b) I was picking the wrong stuff
or
c) I have no taste in metal.

Here's what I like:
Metallica--all of it, even Load and St. Anger (although St. Anger is mastered extraordinarily poorly.
Megadeth--all of it, esp Rust in Peace. OK, Risk sucked.
Tool--all of it (yeah, it's not really metal
NIN--all of it, although you'd think he'd be over that girl by now.
Opeth--although I could do without the growling. Puh-leeze, you've got a nice voice, use it. I have Blackwater Park
Ozzy--the older stuff
Blue Oyster Cult
Alice in Chains and their various spin offs

Anyway... anyone have any suggestions? I'm not really into death metal or rap metal.

I really like Black Label Society, all of it is good.

I think b & c, but simply because you admit to liking St. Anger.

Heh... some of St. Anger was good. If only they hadn't screwed the rest of it all to hell. And if they'd spent a tad more time on the lyrics instead of repeating the same lines over and over again, it would have helped.

Some of the riffs were good, I'll give you that. I couldn't find one song I liked more than a 3rd of. Not surprising considering the music-by-committee pieced together approach they took.

a) You're just getting old.

I listen to metal almost exclusively. Metallica's big 3 are my all-time favorites (Lightning, Puppets, Justice)

After that is Opeth. I highly suggest you get some more of their albums. Damnation isn't metal, but it's damn good and one of the best produced albums I have heard there is no growling at all, just clean vocals.

Deliverance by Opeth is amazing, it does have a lot of growling, but maybe it will grow on you! The song A Fair Judgement makes this album worth it all by itself and it has no growls.

My favorite Opeth album is Morningrise. The production is raw, but I love how it sounds thorugh my Axioms. It has a lot more acoustical guitar and it is very "progressive", it takes many listens to sink in but once it does you will never get sick of it. Very non-repetitive. Do not get this album first, it is one of their least accessible (but most rewarding).

The album Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation is outstanding. The album is 60 minutes long and it's all one song! There is no growling, and it doesn't get old. I almost hate starting this song because it will hook me in and I'm stuck listening to it.

Dream Theater's Images and Words is a must as is Awake. If you like these, then get Scenes From a Memory.

I love Iced Earth, but I do get tired of them more quickly then the above bands. A Question of Heaven is one of my all time favorite songs from any band... The Gettysburg trilogy from Glorious Burden is over 30 minutes and is worth buying the whole album just for that.

Bruce Dickinson's solo album called The Chemical Wedding is outstanding, it's a grower but I like it better than any Maiden album.

I know you don't like growling, but if you can handle growls mixed with female soprano vocals I highly suggest the album Prison of Desire from the band After Forever. It truly is beautiful music, some songs have a "Gladiator soundtrack" sound to them mixed with metal (the song Beyond Me gives me goosebumps).

Amon Amarth's new album called With Oden On Our Side is excellent. It's all growls, but this guy is the best I've heard next to Opeth's singer. In some ways it's better because the production on this album makes his vocals so silky smooth - hard to pull off with growls. The music is very heavy but extremely melodic (pardon the cliche) and there isn't one bad song on the album.

I like tons of other stuff, but these are some of my absolute favorites. Let me know if you want any other suggestions.

BTW, other than NIN and Blue Oyster Cult I really like all of what you are into (not that I dislike those bands, I just never got into them).

As far as Megadeth, Rust in Peace to me is so far above everything else they've done. It's the only one to me that approaches vintage Metallica status.

He did finally get over her. Trent's moved on to larger issues in Year Zero.

The Fragile is still my favorite though.

Cool. I'll check that stuff out tonight.

Ken, let me look through me CD collection here. . .

A while back I went through the same thing--wanted some head-bangin' material, but don't like the whole growl thing.

Okay, here we go. I picked up "Blood Mountain" by Mastodon. A little bit of growling, but not overbearing. The dude can actually sing. . .sort of.

Also, I tried "In the Abscence of Truth" by Isis. I like this one a lot. Isis is more akin to Tool in that they draw out the songs a bit more--which is good since there is excellent musicianship. And, no growl!

Okay just kidding--there is a bit of growl, but just a teeny bit. It's hard to sing along to a song that goes, "Rururur rurur rururururrruru (scream) ruru ru rurururu."

I was thinking about getting an Isis album... I heard a song on the metal channel on cable that sounded pretty good.

I have Mastadon's first album, it's not bad but I really wanted to get into it but couldn't. The production fell victim to the category of "metal that doesn't sound good with Axiom's".

Hey there,

I have very similar interests in the metal side of things - big time metallica fan as well. I have not found anything recently that caught my metal interests. Some old school Iron Maiden (Piece of Mind) or Black Sabbath sound pretty good on the Axioms.

If you like AIC, what about Soundgarden? Badmotorfinger is a classic.

For more recent music - Have you considered Porcupine Tree - they have some metal-ish elements in their songs, but some melodic as well. Their songwriter Steven Wilson produced a few Opeth albums, nad the lead singer of Opeth (Akerfeld?)sings backup (not growling) on their "Deadwing" album, which is pretty heavy. Also, "In Absentia" and the recent "Fear of a Blank Planet" have some heavy riffs. I highly recommend them.

System of a Down have some good songs with a tongue in cheek mentality to boot.

Hope this helps your quest for metal!

You need to listen to "The Metal" from Tenacious D's Pick of Destiny Album.

Great song, surprisingly awesome guitar riffs.

Some great picks up there.

If you want current day stuff, on the less heavy side (somewhere between hard rock and metal), I really enjoy the new Seether CD. Three Days Grace is also a fun, hard working concert band.

Yes, the metal purist would say they are hanging dangerously close in the commercial realm but hey, they are helping to keep the format alive with the kids so they deserve some credit.

To get back to the classics, Iron Maidens concert DVD, Rockin in Rio, is simply AWESOME!! A must have!

Speaking of "metal purists", I never really understood the mentality. I've loved the genre since... well I can't remember not loving it. But I never got the whole "that's not true metal" or whatever. Even though metal is my love, if music is good then it's good.

Last night for example - I'm flipping through channels and come across Heart Live in Seattle on HD Net. Wow. These girls (and guys) sound amazing. If you put the lead singer on American Idol it would be a joke how much better she is than anyone who has won on that show IMO - I was blown away by her control of her voice. The band is also very tight - I am impressed, and I never was a Heart fan.

BTW, I second the recommendation for In Absentia by Porcupine Tree, especially on dvd-audio as well as Rock in Rio Iron Maiden dvd concert.

I really like Chevelle too, although I haven't bought their latest yet. Something about their use of harmonies (at least I think that's what it is) does it for me.

Got In Absentia already, but I've listened to it so much, I'm completely sick of it.

Ha! Not quite there yet!

I have been listening to the older Procupine Tree cd's (Stupid Dream & Signify). There is a lot of interesting music there however you can't beat their latest cd's

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. So far I've purchased Outshined by Soundgarden (yeah, lots of radio play, but this one deserves it), Cult of Personality by Living Colour (see above), and In the Absence of Truth by Isis.

They all sound pretty good on Audiobytes...

I have seen them in concert and they are amazing.

I also highly recommend Faith no More's Angel Dust. It's a bit weird, but at the same time very catchy. I like their album The Real Thing too, but it doesn't have the replay-ability like Angel Dust.

I think Faith no More were ahead of their time and very underrated.

For what it's worth (I know not much ;)) I like all of Metallica too Ken!

I used to listen to Slayer and Sepultura when younger but I grew out of it.

I always thought Angel Dust was "too clever by half"... Introduce Yourself was a lot more raw I thought.

As for other metal, Ken - start buying up good old albums/songs you don't have... I've been thinking I have to fill in my Ozzy and Alice Cooper collections... on the arena/psychadelic rock side, I have a few more Pink Floyd albums to slot in.

I'm not so sure there is any new "good" metal (was any of it ever " good "?) anymore - it's kind of like finding a good do-wop band these days, it's kind of gone out of vogue... well, except in Europe (metal, not do-wop).

Bren R.

"I'm not so sure there is any new "good" metal (was any of it ever " good "?) anymore - it's kind of like finding a good do-wop band these days, it's kind of gone out of vogue... well, except in Europe (metal, not do-wop)."


I couldn't disagree more. Sure, most current metal is not very good but if you dig a little there is some amazing stuff out there (check suggestions in my first post in this thread).

As far as metal never being good, if that's a person's opinion clearly metal is NOT for them and they should stick to other genres - which is fine, to each his own.

BTW Bren, I'll have to check Introduce Yourself. I only have The Real Thing, Album of the Year and Angel Dust. Does Patton sing on Introduce Yourself?

I think you have to be able to laugh at yourself as a "metal fan"... the whole genre is pretty schlocky... I went from 60s rock and roll to metal to punk (where I've stayed most of my life)... metal's always going to have that "what were they thinking?" component to it... for proof... the the first 30 seconds of Amon Amarth's Runes To My Memory... (first link on YouTube on a search)... there is headbanger hair choreography going on there... seriously...

No, it was Chuck Mosely - who also did a short stint in Bad Brains.

Bren R.

I have to laugh at myself for most of my hobbies.

In no particular order and with no disdain meant for anyone with the same hobbies.....

- Offroad Jeeping (I'm billed a redneck)
- Computers (I'm a Geek)
- A inexplicable love for gadgets (Geek again)
- A love for Rock music (Immature)
- I also always liked classical and everything in between (too mature)
- Down hill Skiing (not cool anymore, I should be snowboarding)
- Cross country Skiing (never was cool, should be downhill skiing)

- The one exception is, luckily, my biggest one. It has actually become cool to Sea Kayak! However, for many years I suffered many "Eskimo..." and "tree hugging, rubber booter..." jokes before it became popular.

Ha Ha!! Yeah Bren, I have actually seen that video and that is pretty funny. What's even better is that all of their albums and songs are about vikings. "Viking metal" - I sh*t you not. That said though, I really like their music and they are great at writing heavy songs with tons of hooks/melody.

I have never been a "true" metal head. I never had the long hair, never bought the posters, never wore the clothes (not sure what those clothes are though...). I never understood why you have the rebellious towards society attitude to be into metal.

Nope, for me growing up it was all about the music itself and nothing more. Maybe it's because almost all of my friends and pretty much every one I knew back then liked pop 80's music if they even liked music at all.

I remember that when I was in Jr. High (around 86-88) you were labeled a complete loser and or psycho if you liked Metallica. Kansas City is very conservative, so I didn't realize that some metal bands were "big" and actually had a lot of fans. The heaviest songs played on our radio stations were by Def Leppard.

The way I see it, there's metal and then there's hair bands. Not the same thing. For example, Poison is not metal, no matter how much they show up on VH1 and claim they are. Ozzy is metal, even though he's so screwed up from all the drug everything abuse.

Reminds me of the way Beavis and Butthead saw it too. If I recall, one of them wore a Metallica shirt and the other wore AC/DC. The kid they didn't like and made fun of walked around in a Winger shirt.

I always considered hair bands as commercial metal, it was good for air play. I still like to listen to them now and again.

No, you must never admit this! No good can come of saying that you actually enjoy "Pour Some Sugar on Me" or "Dead or Alive!"

I admit I have Pyromania and Hysteria in the house and do in fact play them willingly. Sorry guys, I know I have now dropped out of your good books(if I ever was in there).

Technically, back in the 80's if you liked Metallica, Iron Maiden and Slayer, you were a "metalhead" , if you liked Poison, Danger Danger and Bon Jovi, you were a poseur which was a particularly disparaging term to an adolescent male.

Ironically,Judas Priest was a metal band, even though Rob Halford had seriously "alternative" tendencies. Back in the day, he was a badass. I think many of us were too young and naive to know what he stood for...besides metal!

My group of friends in high school were of the intelligent type, even though we had long hair and listened to metal. We were not the typical "loser" stereotype. We listened to whatever we thought sounded good, be it metal or other forms of music. (Yes there was obviously some bad metal

I recently looked, and Slayer's classic album Reign in Blood is strangely out of print....

Now I wish I hadn't thrown out all my old cassettes. I'm afraid I listened to all of the above.

All Genres have good and bad and their unfair stereotypes.
It's easy to make fun of
-- the long haired metal head,
-- the long haired, but afraid to wear the pentagram jacket, hard rock guy
-- the punk haired punks
-- the punk haired but frilly sleeved techno guy
-- the preppy sweatered pop guy
-- the jeans and white t-shirted Merl Haggard fans

I listened to all those kinds of music back in high school but never really got labeled because I couldn't afford any kind of clothes aside from basic jeans and t-shirts. I also strangely had good friends in all of those genre groups or 'clicks' as we used to call them. A teacher who couldn't figure me out once labeled me as a high school Switzerland because it was odd to be able to wander all of the different cultured hallways unscathed.

About the only person who we all universally agreed to make fun of was the one single guy with the Bright Red, Micheal Jackson, Leather Jacket. That was just wrong. LOL!!!

I was never into hair bands, but I have always thought that High 'n Dry was good, Pyromania was pretty good too. They lost me with Hysteria, but I still don't hate it. I don't think the first two count as hair band albums.

To me the best "hair band" album I have ever heard was from a band called Wildside and the album was called Under the Influence. Hardly anyone has heard of the band, but you may remember a song in 91 I think called, "Hang on Lucy" that was on the radio a little bit. That was actually my least favorite song on the album. It's pretty much impossible to find that album now.

It's cheesy as hell, but that doesn't seem to bother me with this album for some reason. I rarely listen to it, but it's good when I do. Anybody heard of it?

Wrong in sooo many ways.

I too pretty much listened to everything except country back in H.S., but mostly it was Def Leppard, VH, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and the like.

I think sometimes people get too hung up on slotting music in genres.

I have always been a big AC/DC fan; I bought new releases of theirs in Jr. High and HS before Bon died. I thought Scorpions and Def Leppard were the shiznit when I was in college ~25 years ago. I generally like Pearl Jam and Nickelback. But I just don't enjoy speed metal and a lot of traditional metal (Metallica, etc.).

A couple of harder-edged bands I have enjoyed a lot lately are Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Autopilot Off. But I don't know if they're metal, punk, emo, screamo or adult alternative.

There is a documentary on VH1Classic right now- Heavy: The Story of Metal. good stuff!

I have been enjoying Evanescence. I guess maybe they aren't metal per say but I am not sure that anything newer really could be. I have a hard time getting excited about the old stuff for more than a few songs.

Jeb

I was just going to post that I have liked Evanescence for a metalish new band. Linkin Park might be worth a listen as well. My son has me listening to Yellowcard now too.

I now cannot believe anything you write, Jason. Linkin Park worth a listen? Urch.

Seen 'em in concert opening for Metallica. They weren't the worst band there, but they certainly weren't good.

Live, I agree, they are not good, but their albums sound much better. I just like a few of their songs, which pretty much goes for almost every artist out there I have ever listened to. There are always some songs that catch my ear more than others.

Kind of like I am not a fan of Tori Amos and so many others are, she's just not for me.

My wife loves Tory Amos... So I had no choice in the matter But I have to say that she's grown on me.

I keep trying to like her, but am having a hard time getting past her singing style.

I like her singing, but I think it would be cool to have a disc of her which is strictly piano. I think I would really enjoy it.

Lamb of God, I especially like the concert dvd they have out called Killadelphia. In between the songs they have stuff the band is doing that is sort of interesting, in one Randy, the drunk singer, gets in a fight with Mark, one of the guitar players. Or, once you have seen that stuff a couple times, you can just play the dvd - music only. I play guitar and they are really hard to copy for me. Ever so often I throw that disc on and rock the house. You might also get yahoo radio and set up a station for heavy metal if you are at the computer a lot, or if you have satellite radio in your truck you can listen to hard attack on sirius or liquid metal on xm and get some ideas.

Kings X

I listened to Opeth's Ghost Reveries in 5.1 - they are a very good metal band, their lead singer uses the "cookie monster" vocals for the verses, but actually has a very nice melodic voice on the chorus. Strange that they do it this way. if you can get past the vocals on verses, they are recommended.

He doesn't always use that pattern (refferring to all of their 8 albums). On many of their older albums you can't really tell what is supposed to be the verse and what is supposed to be the chorus anyway. They change things up so much that very little is repeated on most of their songs (unlike Ghost Reveries).

You may find that the growling grows on you over time, I know it did with me. To me it fits the mood of the music perfectly, although to be honest it's not like I'm sitting there missing it on the songs where there are no growls...

Ooh aah, I am going to have to get out the Kings X. I haven't listened to that in while.

Jeb

This seems like just the thread to jump in on. I JUST ordered Axioms today and my musical diet is probably 95% metal and 5% Frank Zappa and "other."

Given that you're not into growling, and your metal tastes so far seem all "aboveground," I'd recommend the following bands.

Just google their names with myspace, as i think they all have streaming samples.

Doomsword

Pelican (no growling, because they're no singing. good choice given you like Isis)

Electric Wizard (punish the low end of your system )

Slough Feg (and earlier listed under the longer "The Lord Weird Slough Feg. )

Hour of 13 (since you like early Ozzy/Sabbath)

Mastery (Instrumental thrash riffing marathons!)

Overkill (earlier, maybe something like Years of Decay or Horrorscope, given your earlier thrash preferences)

Ulver (admittedly not as metal as they once were, but if you want some great stuff to crank up with lots of layers to discover.. pick up their newest: Shadows of the Sun)

Blind Guardian (no growls, quite a few addicting songs. newest one is quite good)

Symphony X (more on the progressive side. tight playing, good riffs, no growls.)

Ark (Get the 'Burn the Sun' album. Catchy slightly progressive songs, fantastic drumming and singing.)

Sir Lord Baltimore (If you liked Zeppelin, try these guys but only the albums "Kingdom Come" and their self-titled, which sell now as a double. Later on, they went soft.)

Wolf. (Their last album "The Black Flame" is pretty fun. Again, lots of catchy songs. Probably closer to hard rock.)

I could do this all night, I also help to produce a small underground metal podcast. (search for "Shadow Kingdom Radio" in the iTunes store, it's free to subscribe)

We'll see how these treat you first and get to more reccomendations later.

Welcome to the board. I like your handle. Here's hoping your Axioms arrive swiftly and you can offer us your impressions.

Thanks for the welcome. I did the free high gloss cherry promotion, so not sure if that adds too long to the order but I hope they're pretty swift as well.

I'm not sure what the OP was hearing on iTunes that he didn't like, but there's a lot of stuff out there. There's some really thriving metal communities in Europe (places you might not expect like Italy and Greece) that don't get a lot of play here in the west, and I'm pretty much obsessive/compulsive about finding good metal so I'm sure I can help.

Also I'm curious... does anyone here have the full Epic 80 7.4 with all the EP600s? That official photo cracks me up. It looks like an alien invasion!

Oops... I usually stick to the Water Cooler and Technical... I forgot I was well-meaningly slinging poo up here.

Bren R.

^ Undoubtedly you are a fan of the Poo Fighters...

I have no idea what it was that I was hearing. I haven't checked it out since I bought the Isis album a few weeks ago (the main computer is in the room where the baby sleeps, soooooo.... not all that available to me except on weekends.)

Stuntgibbon,

I was intrigued by your description of Mastery, "Instrumental thrash riffing marathons!" this made me think of Orion, Call of Ktulu, and To Live is To Die and I started drooling...

I checked out some of their song clips on amazon, and I really liked what I heard. They did sound pretty repetitive, but I don't mind that at all if it's really good. - Wow, I'm listening to a clip of "Power Race" right now, and it's goooood -
So does it get old or is it so good that you don't mind the repetitiveness?

I tend not to be bored by it on a full listen, and it also helps that the playing time is pretty short on Lethal Legacy. (their only release so far I think) It's basically an EP of 5 or 6 songs with some added demo versions of them tacked on.

Personally, I think it's a great sort of band for short car trips. Really powerful and driving, helps you speed.

What do you think of Isis? I have not heard anything from them, wondering if that is something I could get into.

Um........


I haven't listened to it yet.....it didn't make it on the 'pod on my latest sync, and that was awhile ago. I'm a bad person.

Digging up the metal thread. How are you fairing with the recommendations?

Life's been a little busy on one hand, and I've been distracted by too much gaming on the other, so I haven't gotten anything new. I listened to the first few tracks of the Isis album, and I'm not too thrilled. It all seems a little airy, prog rockish for a metal group, combined with some rather ineffective growling--at least compared to Opeth. Perhaps I've just not been in the right mood when listening to it.

Have you tried hitting your thumb with a hammer?

Sorry Sean...

OK, I take it all back, except the bit about the wimpy growling. I listened a little farther on the album at lunch today, and I'm appreciating it a lot more.

Sometimes I try listening to new CDs and if I'm not in the mood, I can't make it through the entire thing. It may be a month or so down the line and I'll give it another shot--and often I'm rewarded.

Seems that after i got a hair cut and job im not upto date with the metal scene anymore.

Metalica has always been my fav and i even saw the Justice For All concert at the Maple Leafe Gardens!

Slayer has some great tunes! To bad their so Santanic ! As a teenager i would write out there lyrics on paper and leave in my room for my mom to find.


Check out LimeWire before you buy anything from itunes. Goodway to sample it first.

Fun fact: Slayer's singer Tom is Catholic.

Santanic? I didn't realize Slayer and Santana merged. ha ha lol

Hello, I have a huge concern and need your opions please! I am hesitant to purchase an epic 60/500 system (maybe a different sub)do to reading several opinions regarding the musical reproduction of Axiom speakers. It seems as if Axioms sound best with classical and orchestral type recordings. This is a real problem for me because I love metal, as well as other genres of music. I have read many Axiom owners state "metal is too bright for Axiom speakers". This sounds preposterous but $3,500 is too huge of an investment to take a risk. I'm not into purchasing something and then going through the trouble of returning it if I'm not happy with the performance.

Please give me your honest oppinions. Some of my favorite bands are King Diamond/ Mercyful Fate, Jag Panzer, Manilla Road, Opeth, Hexenhaus, Momento Mori, Candlemass, Nevermore, Eidolon, Pagan's Mind etc. Any speaker characteristics would be greatly appreciated. I look foreward to any replies. Thanks

Have you tried to find someone nearby that you could get an audition from? This way you could try your own music and see if you like it. I haven't found any problems with metal or another genre, as long as it has been recorded well. Axiom's are just very acurrate and will show the flaws in any recording but good recordings sound incredible.

Since becoming a regular on this board a couple of years ago I also still read AVS and some other audio forums from time to time and I rarely see those comments and then they are usually like yours, in the form of a question and the answers are normally that they are indeed not bright at all. So I'm a bit confused why this keeps turning up. Therefore I did a bit more research with a real quick Google search. My search did turn up lots of examples of the words 'Axiom + speakers + bright' but for every question asked, there are multiple responses or professional reviewers stating that in fact, Axiom speakers are not bright.

So why is this question so common? My personal theory is that, like myself, most of us in the 'rocker' category either grew up listening to metal when we couldn't afford 'accurate' speakers and loud was really the only criteria. Also, the younger generation today are still listening to metal (I love that the music of my youth has survived a couple of generations!) but their experience with audio fidelity is influenced by iPods and heavily compressed MP3s.

In short, the boomboxes of old, older speakers built to look big, over emphasize the bass and be very loud, right up to today's ultra common, poorly made earphones are all very 'forgiving' of poorly engineered recordings. The recording industry knows this and have become lazy, using compression techniques designed to replace the dynamics and clarity with loudness.
Why? Because on non-accurate speakers that can't present the detail anyways....loudness sells.

I myself found it difficult to go back and play some of my CDs and most MP3s when I upgraded to Axiom Speakers. Luckily I played some really well produced CDs first, by chance really, and was TOTALLY blown away by the detail and sound quality that I never even knew existed before. However, I started noticing that some CDs and practically all of my MP3s actually seemed to sound worse than I remembered. I now have a wide variety of music in my library but metal is still a big part of it and unfortunately, this category did seem to have a larger ratio of more disappointing sound quality.

However, I soon realized that this wasn't the fault of the speakers. They were not too bright, they were not too cheap... They were too good. They were playing the music EXACTLY as it was recorded by a crappy producer who used compression techniques to make the recording have the illusion of sounding as loud as possible. If the song was further compressed into an MP3 or other file format, it only makes it worse.

Just how good speakers like Axiom truly are becomes blatantly obvious when you play a well made recording. It will simply blow you away. You will want to spend days listening to every CD or piece of music you own all over again, as if it were your first time.

Since most of my listening was done via MP3s streamed to my receiver via a Squeezebox, I solved most of my problems by re-ripping every CD I owned into a lossless format. I used flac, instead of MP3. I still retain a library of MP3s for my MP3 player as it doesn't matter as much there. An MP3 player often can't play music all that well to begin with so, you don't notice the difference as much. MIght as well save some space.

Moving away from MP3s, whenever possible, on my bigger system improved things greatly. However, I can still definitely tell the difference between a well recorded album and and poorly made one.

In short I don't believe Axiom speakers are too bright but they will teach you about poor recording qualities. I don't think they are wrong for metal as they are equally accurate with any kind of music.

Metal (rock in general) does have more than it's fair share of poor recordings compared to classical so I think this is where most of the "too bright for metal" comments may be coming from. Depending on your sensitivity, perhaps an audiophile grade speaker is not going to be your best choice but it will be important to remember that ANY well made and truly 'accurate' speaker will give you the same experience in bringing out what is truly recorded in music. However, if you dive in, I think you will find that you will be so happy listening to the good stuff that you will realize it was an Excellent choice and you will wonder how you ever lived without them.

Hope this doesn't come across as an Axiom defense tactic. it isn't meant to be. In fact I tried to refer to 'accurate speakers' in general, rather than just Axiom. Just sharing how another metalhead came to learn a little more about how audio really works and share his conclusions about his speakers.

The best advice is above though. Find somebody in the audition list in this forum who lives near you and listen to them for yourself. I'll add just a bit to it in saying bring some music you are very familiar with and also search this forum and others for some suggestions on metal that is well recorded and bring that too for a comparison. Be warned though, once you hear music on any system that compares with Axiom or is Axiom, there is no going back......

Sorry for the long reply. It helped me pass the time on two conference calls and made me look busy enough that the office lurker kept wandering by instead of pulling in to chat.

Opeth, Tool, NIN (not really metal, I know), most newer Metallica and the remasters (ducks), and the like sound quite good on my M80s. There are some metal albums that are poorly recorded, certainly, but you're going to run into that in many genres.


Nevertheless, I'd try to find someone whose speakers you can audition--but make sure you tell them about your musical tastes first!

I'm curious if any of the processing modes -- "concert hall", "jazz", etc -- on modern AVR's mitigate the effect some have observed of poorly-recorded CD's sounding bad on M80's. I wonder if there's perhaps extraneous high-frequency information on such that lesser speakers simply aren't putting out.

If the first two Scorpions albums (which were recorded badly) don't sound good on M80's, I'd be very sad.

First impressions linger, and sometimes fester. I remember a sales guy at a company I once worked for who planted false seeds of doubt to win a $3m contract. Quite amazingly, despite a lack of any real or manufactured evidence, it was enough to swing the customer in our direction. BS works.

The M60 is less detailed/more forgiving than the M80, but in the end you need to listen and make up your own mind. You could also consider the M50 if you are not happy with the sound the M60 delivers.

Very True Fred.

Also, for the post above it. Playing with tone controls can definitely improve the sound of a 'poor recording' by masking some of the flaws. I have pretty much resigned myself to leaving them all turned off though. Just too much work to keep adjusting them as I normally listen to my entire collection on random mode and I refuse to tweak on a song by song basis. I never tend to like any of the "presets" that you speak of. They change the sound way too radically, but that's just me.

It's rare anything sounds so poorly recorded that I'm actually tempted to adjust or not listen. It's all relative. Good is SOOO good on Axioms that calling some stuff 'poor' is probably a bit unfair.

By "first two Scorpions albums", are you going all the way back to thier first release in 1972, "Lonesome Crow" or are you talking the first one to have big commercial success in North America, "Love at First Sting"? I have some CD version of "Love at First Sting." it certainly won't win any engineering rewards but it will still Rock You Like a Hurricane on my M60s. I get a little nostalgic shiver down my spine every time that opening guitar riff comes up.

Yes, Lonesome Crow and Fly to the Rainbow.

I like listening to metal on my M22's. Sounds fantastic.

Also because this thread is about good metal and good sounding metal......

Black Sabbath just released a box set called The Rules of Hell. 5 discs from the bands days with Dio as singer. The remastering is excellent and all metal fans should have this set. If not only to listen to the much underated Dehumanizer album.

Also (you can tell I'm a Sabbath fan?) If you can find any of Black Sabbath's not so well know albums with singer Tony Martin, you should grab them. Headless Cross, Eternal Idol, Cross Purposes. These albums were over looked because of changing times, IRS not being able to market in the US, and the old "if its not ozzy its not sabbath" thing. They are awesome metal albums and again, all metal fans should give them a listen.

Charlie

Hey Thanks, I wasn't aware of that set. I admit, when I think of Black Sabbath, I think of Ozzy but Dio WAILED!!! I will be checking that out.

Can you recommend any Ozzy fronted Sabbath remasters. Not that I have looked hard but everything I have sounds like they recorded it in a basement.

I have the Megadeth live album Rude Awakenings in the car. I haven't listened to it for years. It sounds pretty good.

There is a complete remaster of the Ozzy years with Sabbath called Black Box. All albums that Ozzy fronted are included in digipacks, and there is a very nice book included with the set.

Of course if you dont want to spend 60-90 bucks on the complete Black Box, there is a 2 (i think) cd set called Symptom of the Universe. It includes most of the hits and the remastering is from the same remastering sessions as Black Box.

Speaking of Megadeth, if your a fan you MUST seek out the Mobile Fidelity remaster of Countdown to Extinction.

Thanks Ninja, I have heard a 2CD set before, probably the one you mention, and wasn't impressed enough to buy the same songs over again. I will check out the Black Box version though. I'd happily reinvest in this music if it sounds better. In fact, 1/2 my Sabbath music was on cassettes so I haven't listened to them in years and years.

Let me know how you like the Sabbath remasters.

I saw Sabbath (with DIO as Heaven and Hell) this past Saturday at the PNC Arts Center here in NJ. The show was excellent they are proving over and over to be the fathers of metal. Man, was it loud!

Also a week before that I met the band at a local record store and had them sign my "Rules of Hell" box set.

Never thought all this would be going on with my favorite band all these years later

Just picked up a 180g reissue LP of Metallica Kill 'Em All. My first real foray into metal. I even saw them play The Stone in San Francisco back then, w/ Motorhead as the opener.

Haven't listened yet though.

Speaking of Metallica - "The Day That Never Comes" is blasting on my Axioms right now. The new single came out today on the radio and can be downloaded at http://www.missionmetallica.com (free to join) The boys are back! Very reminiscent of classic stuff from Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning