Next Testament CD

[redfly]

It's all bullshit.Bands want the first week sales to be good.So I buy it.Then a few months later come out with another version and want you to buy it all over again.Fuck that.It is absolutely record company greed.If it wasn't then they would put ep's of this extra stuff for a couple bucks like they used to back in the day.The record company's rip off the bands more than anyone.It's shit like that that helps drive downloading.I always buy,but lots of people don't and that is one of the reasons.

[redfly]

Originally Posted by lord of Darkness

I have a feeling this new album is gonna be heavier and darker than the last one...It's gonna be a good one I think, as the last one "FOD" was...but i have a feeling the bonus tracks will be pretty bad....I can't see testament playing maiden, especially chuck singing a bruce song....Even worse is testament playing Queen...Maybe Chuck will shock me and do freddie mercury justice....

Chuck did a pretty good cover of Maidens Fear Of The Dark.The music wasn't that polished but Chuck sounded good.

[NevermoreTHC]

Originally Posted by Angelic Slayer

I can name several bands, actually. Here's 2 examples right off the bat:

Gamma Ray's last album had 3 different versions with exclusive extras. There was a limited edition CD that came with a "making of" DVD, but no bonus tracks. A "collector's edition" that came with the CD plus a bonus 7" vinyl that contained 2 bonus tracks, but no DVD. The Japanese edition also came with 2 bonus tracks. One of which was on the 7" vinyl, but the other was exclusive to the Japanese edition only. So both the collector's edition and the Japanese release contained one bonus track that was available with that version only.

Napalm Death's latest album had 4 bonus tracks but all of them were exclusive to specific versions of the album. A limited edition CD featured the bonus tracks "Everything In Mono" and "Aim Without An Aim". The vinyl edition featured the bonus track "Standardization", and the Japanese release featured the bonus track "It Failed To Explode". So, to obtain all 4 bonus tracks, you'd have to buy 3 different editions of the same album.

You also mentioned "tour editions". Helloween's "Gambling With The Devil" had a US tour edition released a few months after the album's original release which contained a bonus track which was exclusive to the tour edition only. The album's original release itself contained 2 exclusive bonus tracks on the 2-disc Digipak version, and the Japanese version contained 1 bonus track that was exclusive to that version only. So again, you would need to buy 3 different editions of that album to get all the bonus tracks.

This practice is very much in abundance, and has only grown more so in recent years.

I don't follow Gamma Ray or Napalm Death so, all I can say there is you got me. I do slightly remember seeing different versions of Gambling with different tracks but I wasn't a fan of the album so I don't think I paid attention there. Were all the bonus tracks studio songs or were they live?

I will say that one practice that annoys me is bands putting different live songs out as b-sides for singles/bonus tracks. For one, it's lazy. On the other hand, it's annoying because now I want to hear the rest of the show and it's obvious they have the entire show in good sound quality but the band usually never makes the rest of the show available.

Now, if you go to a site like dimeadozen, if they have the show, they can post the rest of the tracks but not the commercially released ones so as to avoid copyright laws. It's frustrating if it's a show from the 80's and buying the single with those live tracks will cost you around $30 on eBay. So, you download the show but now you'e missing five key tracks from the show because they were on a single over 20 years ago. Most of the time the artists don't even know about those b-sides and that they have these great shows sitting in the vault. If it's an older act then they don't want to release stuff from back then because they want to "move forward." In these cases, the fans actually want to buy this stuff from the artists but they (or the label) didn't make it available back then and now they don't even want to put out stuff from "back in the day" because they want to be seen as current. Frustrating.

[Alteredmindeath]

Stupid record companies like that are putting themselves out of business.

[Angelic Slayer]

Originally Posted by Alteredmindeath

Sure they can, it's just a matter if they want to work or not. Anybody can make money, money is expendable. I agree buying the album once earns your right to be a certified fan, and not just some leach that goes around jacking music and claiming they're a fan of this band.

It's not as simple as that. Some people are only able to obtain low-paid jobs, so for some, just buying the essentials needed to survive can be a struggle, let alone funding luxuries. And a CD is a luxury. Let alone having to buy several editions of the same album. That is certainly a luxury not everyone can afford. Especially if you're like me and love a lot of bands.

And yes, I'm glad to see we agree on that. Buying one copy of a band's album instead of illegally downloading it means you are a true fan. You should not have to buy into record companies' rip-off tactics in order to be a true fan though. You buy the album once, then it's yours, and you have shown loyal support to the band you love. If you have to "download" to obtain a single song or two which are on different versions of the same album you have purchased, then I am fine with that as you are fighting record companies' rip-off tactics by doing so. But to not buy the album in any way, shape or form makes you a thief, and not a true fan of the band.

Originally Posted by NevermoreTHC

I don't follow Gamma Ray or Napalm Death so, all I can say there is you got me. I do slightly remember seeing different versions of Gambling with different tracks but I wasn't a fan of the album so I don't think I paid attention there. Were all the bonus tracks studio songs or were they live?

All of the bonus tracks were new studio songs. There was two on the bonus disc of the two disc version ("Find My Freedom" and "See The Night"), one on the Japanese version ("We Unite"), and one on the US tour edition ("Never Surrender") I purchased the 2-disc version, so obtained the first two bonus tracks with my purchase. I obtained the Jap version through a member of their official website sending me it in a personal message, and I obtained the tour edition bonus though a sharing network. But seeing as I physically bought one copy of the album, I showed my loyalty and support to the band, by buying their new work. So I feel that how I obtained the two other bonus tracks was justified.

@Redfly: I was going to mention that practice in an earlier post. That is indeed another rip-off tactic that has become popular with record companies' in recent years. And the people it penalises most IS the true fans who will go out and buy the band's album at the time of release. It is infuriating to buy a new album, only to find a short time later, (in many cases it's less than a year later) the album being re-released as a "special edition" with bonus tracks. Which is obviously a move geared towards trying to leech more money out of real fans, in the hope they will shell out full price again for the same album with 1 or 2 extra tracks on it. This is a lowly tactic, and once again in this case, if you have already purchased the album, then I see it as completely justified if you find "other means" of obtaining those tracks other than paying through the nose again for what is essentially the same album with an extra track or two on it.

But even so, you are punishing the band as well as the record company by not buying the album at all, so I still feel you should buy the album at least once to show your support to the band. Even though some record companies do try and rip fans off, I still do not support people illegally downloading all (or even most) of the albums they want instead of buying them. I don't care about the record companies, but it is hurting the bands too, and you can't say you are a "fan" of a band when you are essentially taking money out of their pockets for all the work they put into providing you with new music.

As for the person insinuating Chuck won't be able to handle Maiden and Queen, well I really can't see that being the case. Though I am certainly very intrigued at the thought of Chuck covering Freddie Mercury (my fave vocalist of all time), but I'm pretty confident he'll be able to pull it off in his own inimitable style. As for Powerslave... he'll totally kill it (in a good way!) I'm sure! xD

[redfly]

By the time Chuck is done with this song Maiden is going to wish he was their singer! hahaha.

We know Chuck can kill Scorpions, Sails Of Charon is badass.Hell Chuck kills everything.

Speaking of record company greed.Look at how many Best of albums Testament has.Chuck and Eric have said that it's all their doing.The record company picks out the songs and just puts it out.

The only Testament cd I haven't bought twice is the delux version of TFOD and I still intend too.I feel the same way you do Angelic Slayer.There is only so much money for entertaiment,if you have bought the cd in the first place you shouldn't have to buy the whole album again for one or two songs.For fux sake some people have to work 2 hours just to buy a cd!

[NevermoreTHC]

To be honest, I usually wait until each region has released the CD until I purchase my copy of any specific CD to make sure I don't fall into this trap. If I have to wait 2-3 months sometimes to get the disc, so be it. But usually it's the Japanese pressing that has the most songs and it always has the best sound quality.

[redfly]

Really? I didn't realize that the sound quality was different.That makes it all even worse!

[NevermoreTHC]

Originally Posted by redfly

Really? I didn't realize that the sound quality was different.That makes it all even worse!

It's not a subtle difference, especially for discs that were pressed in the 80's. My Japanese pressing of Helloween's "Keeper of the Seven Keys" sounds better than the remaster that was done a few years ago. Of course, if an album was produced like crap, nothing is going to make it sound "good" but usually even the Japanese pressings hold some stock over the rest of the world.

For a more current example, I have three different copies of Warrel Dane's "Praises To The War Machine" on CD: a US promo, German digipak and the Japanese pressing. The promo is the worst sounding by far, the German noticeably better than the US but the Japanese brings out qualities not heard in either. The vinyl pressing kills all three of them but that's to be expected. Nothing beats vinyl.

The other thing that hurts sound quality is that "CD Extra" crap, where they put audio and video on the same CD (not DVD). When Sony put out those DualDiscs years ago I refused to buy them. Unfortunately Joe Perry's CD only came out that way. I did find a promo copy of the disc that was just a regular CD and it was like someone lifted a heavy blanket off the speakers.

[redfly]

I have the special editions of the 3 Flotsam And Jetsam re release's from metalmind and the 20th of Doomsday.They sound much better than the originals.But I had no idea that the sound varied from the US to Europe to Japan.

[Angelic Slayer]

I only own one copy of every Testament album on CD. (including the deluxe version of TFOD) I see no need to own more than one copy of each album.

As for best-ofs, they generally are money grabbing excercises on the part of the record company, and have little or no input from the actual bands themselves. Take Judas Priest. The "Metal Works '73-'93" compilation featured major involvement from the band themselves. From personally selecting the tracklist, to giving liner notes for each song. But there have been countless other Priest "best-ofs" which have no band involvement whatsoever, that are just put out by the record company.

I also had no idea that Japanese CD's had better sound than CD's from other regions... I wonder why that is?

I've just finished watching a very recent interview with Eric where he says most of the songs on the new album are long, and once again confirms there will be a lot of lead guitar interaction between him and Alex on the new material. Unfortunately, when he was asked if he knew when the single "Native Blood" would be released, he said he didn't know.

Also interestingly, from what I could gather, he said ALL of the drum tracks on the album are performed by Gene. Although there is a version of "A Day In The Death" which has Chris Adler on drums, and this will be an Itunes exclusive bonus track.

[NevermoreTHC]

Originally Posted by Angelic Slayer

I also had no idea that Japanese CD's had better sound than CD's from other regions... I wonder why that is?

The story that I always heard was that, because of the higher prices in Japan, records and CDs were being imported in for cheaper prices. To combat that, the labels asked for exclusive bonus tracks from the artist and they also made the discs have better sound quality.

Although it depends on the band/artist, most of the time I buy the Japanese import for the better sound quality.

From best to worst sound quality by region:

Japan
Germany
UK/USA
Everywhere else (except for)
Mexico/Russia

Unfortunately I am seeing more and more US (domestic) CDs with the "Made in Mexico" sticker on them. Those discs ALWAYS sound like crap and I refuse to buy them.

[redfly]

Ha! yeah I don't want any cd made in Mexico and the Chinese ones probably give you cancer.

[redfly]

Frick I hate itunes and digital bullshit.I want it in a hard copy in my rack with all my other cds!

[redfly]

For me the most exciting about the upcoming album is Eric.He is such a great player but his solos were always gone way too quick.I'm really looking forward to this!

[NevermoreTHC]

The Japanese pressing of "Dark Roots Of The Earth" will be released July 25 on King Records, catalogue number KICP-1602.

[redfly]

oh cool,how does that work? is it still Nuclearblast?

[NevermoreTHC]

Originally Posted by redfly

oh cool,how does that work? is it still Nuclearblast?

No, it's King Records which is the "big" metal label in Japan. Most metal releases, outside of the Metallica's of the world, are released on that label in Japan.

Also found out that Testament will be playing with Anthrax and Death Angel at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ on October 5. Definitely buying tickets for that, especially since it's about 25 minutes away from me.

[NevermoreTHC]

One site has pre-order already for Japanese pressing: http://www.cdbanq.com/Testament--Dar...2_p_77189.html

I normally wait for CDJapan to have theirs listed because they sometimes have external (posters, stickers, etc) bonuses with the "first pressing" of the disc. Not guaranteed that they will have one, but they did with TFOD.

[redfly]

Very cool,thanks for the heads up!

By the way I already call foul on the record company,one of the bonus tracks is just an extended version of a song on the regular album.CHEESY!!
Put the whole song on the regular album and then take the track with Chris from LOG that is a stupid download and use that as the bonus track!

[redfly]

Oh,do you know if cdbanq uses paypal?

[NevermoreTHC]

Originally Posted by redfly

Oh,do you know if cdbanq uses paypal?

Both cdbanq and cdjapan accept paypal. I think it's worth waiting for CDJapan to put up their pre-order (probably by mid-June) just to see if they give any extras with the disc. I know cdbanq doesn't do that.

I don't get the "extended version" as a bonus track either. I'd rather have new, original studio tracks than cover songs as well but, beggars can't be choosers.

[High Priest Of Evil]

Another short and enthusiastic review has been posted at: http://www.thisisnotascene.com/2012/...oots-of-earth/. I'm getting jealous for those who have already had the chance to listen to the album.

[redfly]

I know! Flotsam And Jetsams former webmaster said her friend at NB was listening to the whole thing a week and a half ago.....BAH!

[Angelic Slayer]

Gah! It's not fair, I want to be able to hear it now too! lol