Not sure if anyone here has seen this but apparently Atlantic has reissued The Legacy, The New Order, The Ritual and Low as "remastered" versions exclusively for Japan. I know that the Japanese market will sometimes get these exclusively (especially for albums long out of print over there) but I'm surprised these just popped up without any announcement from the band or anything. Seeing as I already have first Japanese pressings of all of these except for "The New Order", that's the only one I've ordered. CDbanq has them pretty reasonable (for Japanese pressings) so I ordered it from there on Thursday (along with F&J's "The Cold") so they should arrive right around July 5th. There isn't any bonus material with it, just the promise of remastered sound in the SHM format. I'll post up a review of it once it gets here and I get a chance to listen to it thoroughly on the home system.
Testament Japanese SHM reissues
- Thread starter NevermoreTHC
- Start date
redfly
Ruled By The Riff
The band probably doesn't even know! Atlantic are assholes! Why can't they do this shit here.I'm sick of buying expensive imports,but now I have too.
Great news though.I wish "Souls" would get remastered and that the intro is turned way up!
The Cold is awesome!
Great news though.I wish "Souls" would get remastered and that the intro is turned way up!
The Cold is awesome!
I finally received my discs yesterday. I didn't have time to listen to The New Order last night as I took my dad out for dinner and he went to bed shortly after we got home (chemo treatments are working but kicking his ass at the same time). I did rip it to 192kb mp3 last night and played it on my ipod twice in my car and once at work. While the tiny speakers at work didn't do it justice it did sound really nice in the car.
The real test came when I played it on my home system tonight. My CD player is a Rega Apollo, I've got a Marantz SR7400 receiver, Boston Acoustic VR-M80 towers and all my cables are made by Mapleshade audio. This might mean something or nothing to you, it's just the common shit audiophiles put down in their reviews.
Now for the disc; I believe that the "remastered" tag here is inaccurate. It sounds to me like it's more of a remix, which is actually preferred. Hell, it might be a straight master from the original Japanese master reels (since I don't have an early Japanese pressing, I can't be 100% sure). What I can tell you is it sounds really good. I tested the Japanese version against my standard US edition (which actually sounds decent as well). Because I heard the biggest difference on the intro to "The New Order" I played both discs back to back several times. One thing that stands out is how much more up front the guitars are and how much clearer and punchier the cymbals and kick drum sound in the intro. The guitars sound very crisp and crunchy and, again, have been pushed more up front in the mix. I noticed on the US version that they seemed buried and muddy. The disc doesn't have the compressed feel that some remasters have and that's why I think it was remixed instead.
All in all it was definitely worth the $36 shipped that I paid for it. I'm considering getting The Ritual as well (even though I have an original Japanese promo pressing of it) because I really love that album. Maybe someday someone can tell me why so many Testament fans hate it because I think it's one of their darkest albums.
The real test came when I played it on my home system tonight. My CD player is a Rega Apollo, I've got a Marantz SR7400 receiver, Boston Acoustic VR-M80 towers and all my cables are made by Mapleshade audio. This might mean something or nothing to you, it's just the common shit audiophiles put down in their reviews.
Now for the disc; I believe that the "remastered" tag here is inaccurate. It sounds to me like it's more of a remix, which is actually preferred. Hell, it might be a straight master from the original Japanese master reels (since I don't have an early Japanese pressing, I can't be 100% sure). What I can tell you is it sounds really good. I tested the Japanese version against my standard US edition (which actually sounds decent as well). Because I heard the biggest difference on the intro to "The New Order" I played both discs back to back several times. One thing that stands out is how much more up front the guitars are and how much clearer and punchier the cymbals and kick drum sound in the intro. The guitars sound very crisp and crunchy and, again, have been pushed more up front in the mix. I noticed on the US version that they seemed buried and muddy. The disc doesn't have the compressed feel that some remasters have and that's why I think it was remixed instead.
All in all it was definitely worth the $36 shipped that I paid for it. I'm considering getting The Ritual as well (even though I have an original Japanese promo pressing of it) because I really love that album. Maybe someday someone can tell me why so many Testament fans hate it because I think it's one of their darkest albums.
redfly
Ruled By The Riff
Well it sounds like a pretty good review to me,but I'll confess I have no idea what all the stereo stuff is lol
Is there a website where you can sample these songs?
I'd like to pick them up and also their other remasters,maybe someday when I have about $200.00 I don't need.
The Ritual is a complicated subject for me and I don't have time right now.
I hope your Dads treatments go well!
Is there a website where you can sample these songs?
I'd like to pick them up and also their other remasters,maybe someday when I have about $200.00 I don't need.
The Ritual is a complicated subject for me and I don't have time right now.
I hope your Dads treatments go well!
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