QUOTE (Mach-X @ Jul 4 2013, 07:41) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Topic sums it up. In my home theater I picked up some vintage paradigm mk3se's as since the first time I heard paradigm speakers I was a fan. Using a pair of atoms for surround. I am a fan of of deathcore/death metal/thrash, etc, and whenever I listen to any of this on my system I can't stand the sound. It's lifeless with overbearing mud. When watching a dvd with dolby digital, or playing pop music like Madonna's celebration double disc set, the audio is sublime with bass that punches you in the chest, and when somebody jangles keys in a movie it sounds like it's coming from _over there_. Is metal just badly produced? Is it _supposed_ to sound so muddy? My favorite metal albums like Master of Puppets or Whitechapel's A New Era of Corruption just sound aweful.
I think it entirely depends on the mixing behind it, there are some metal albums I've listened to that really suit that muddy/badly EQed style, and then there are others that sound amazing because it's been produced right... I think the main problem with a lot of these bands is they get too excited too quickly and end up making a mess of what could have been something potentially amazing. Take Jiezuberband for instance (not really metal), they waited until they could hit a proper studio before recording and it was one of my favorite album releases last year (It's called Sound of The Sun and I highly recommend it
). But then there are albums like "RnFnR" the Slash album, all the songs are completely different and most of them are mixed differently, it depends on what sound you're going for but all in all in my opinion you should never settle for something badly produced unless you intend for it to be that way. 