OK, after a ton of listening, I've downgraded my rating of "Death Magnetic".

I'm very glad to have the Metallica boys back in Thrash mode and I'm damn skippy to have Metallica sounding songs crashing the brainwaves again...but the mix on "Death Magnetic" has started to piss me off to no end. The thin ass vocal mix is not acceptable. It doesn't fit the room size in the recording as there's nil reverb on it. It sounds almost separate from the mix to me.

Somebody please stop them from going into "...And Justice for All" mix/record mode next time. Let them growl through the full range of hertz.

I keep hearing the Guitar Hero mix of "Death Magnetic" is fantastic (I haven't heard it yet) and if true, that pisses me off.

Many of the songs on "Death Magnetic" have a great riff and many of the riffs will make you think "Damage Inc.", "Master of Puppets", etc. This isn't totally fair as they aren't cops--they're evocative of the albums. However, as a listener, these thoughts will float by.

Still, while not an "A" anymore, "Death Magnetic" rates a damn solid "B".

It's also the best damn album Metallica has had in decades. I still say welcome back boys!

Now, keep that damn train rolling.

--Jason Henke

Jeez. It's been over a month since I've been even able to do this much on the site. I'm set to add the Wordpress features on my hosting server, I just need to add in the MySQL request and then I can start that all up.

What I've been doing since I was last here is pretty simple: I've been rebuilding my main computer (the hard drive gave out psychically), recovering data, and working a lot at the day job for a go-live that went off successfully.

Other than that, I've been doing chores and I have a lot more to do. I'll probably start up the Wordpress site in November after Dallas...so make it December...there's just too much happening before hand.

Like everyone else, I'm feeling the money crunch. Tightening the belt and going over budgets. It's tough right now and this will be the first year where my personal savings will drop (let's not even mention the retirement/investments!). I'm no different than anyone else. Things is tough.

If you were to ask about the creative projects...well, they've not progressed. I had too much day job/home computer fixing/daily tasks to keep me from getting to them. Wait, I lie. I just did some work yesterday on a project. Well, it's something at least.