Metallica's "Death Magnetic"- Loudest Record Ever? Hear from Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd

Is Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” the loudest record ever? I discuss this with mastering engineer, 𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗣𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗗, our guest in 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗗𝗘 𝟭𝟯. In 2008 Ian found himself at the epicenter of a kerfuffle about whether the record had been mastered too loudly. His position was that it was so loud it was audibly clipping and distorting (in a bad way). A blog post he made about this topic wound up in “Wired” magazine and ultimately was picked up by the Wall Street Journal. He even ended up on BBC Radio talking about the loudness wars and dynamic range in connection with this record.
About 20,000 Metallica fans signed a petition to have Death Magnetic remixed and remastered for more dynamics (less volume), and in 2015 Metallica re-released a more dynamic version for iTunes that also now appears on Metallica’s website.
Loudness and dynamics aside, Death Magnetic was critically acclaimed and well received worldwide, and it was nominated for 6 Grammys, winning 3.
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