Original year it came out 1990

"

The System has failed

review by Matthew "Newbreed99" Haumschild___

   To begin with the original recording. I don't know who to blame on this because I wasn't there, but the shear quality of the original recording was really bad and not up to par with other recordings of the same time period. The levels weren't there, the sound quality was just not good at all. I noticed this even before I went to school for sound engineering. The songs themselves were excellent but the recording didn't do it any justice at all. The overall recording was muffled and the levels were low. When I write "Levels" what I mean is when you put the CD into special players, that allow you see what decibel level the album is at, it doesn't even come close to today's standards, but that's to be expected, right? Well, I also put Metallica's "Master Of Puppets" album on the same CD player with that meter, and the levels on that were normal for that time period, RIP's were not. But again, the songs are fucking great!! GRR!!!

   I was hoping to g-d someday that they would at least re-master it or do something so the levels would be at todays standards. Dave Mustaine did one better, he remixed and redid everything to it and oh my lord everyone...it fucking rocks!!! My first taste of it was when they released Track 1 on MP3 on Megadeth's website and I could immediately hear the difference. The drums for example, were bumped up in the mix, the muffle on them was gone and a better reverb was added on the toms. For the vocals, again, they were too bumped up in the mix and a bit cleared up other than that, that's all I could tell from a crummy mp3 I would have to go into deeper analysis when I buy the CD with better audio quality and something that I could crank in my car.

   I could go through each and every track with you, but this review would go on forever so I'll give you the most major and most welcomed changes that came with this remix.

   "Hangar 18"
   This song is in every Megadeth fan's top 10 list. No exceptions. The snare was the very first thing I noticed, it was clearer and more defined in the mix and the overall sound of the snare drum sounds more natural. For all you drummers and drum techs, the snare actually sounds like it's maple! Also, if all you knit pickers out there (like me) will notice that after the millions of solos in this song, the drop off in overall mix level has finally been fixed! On the original mix, there was a 1/4 second of drop off in overall sound level after a solo was completed, mainly from the Max Norman (original mixer) trying his best to make the solo's shine in the song by turning the rest of the mix down and by automation on the soundboard turn them back up after the solos were done. Most people don't notice this, but now you will, now that I have mentioned it.

   With this song and "Holy Wars" we see the largest improvement. If these songs were brand new, there wouldn't be a metal band on the planet that could compete with their brutal  heaviness, technicality and lyric writing.

   "Take No Prisoners" (I know, I promised I wouldn¹t go through every song...)
   This song has the most obvious change to it that everyone would know. The vocals sound completely different. I don't know if it was mixing work or if Mustaine himself re-sung all the vocals including the backing vocals within the first verse. Through out the whole song, the vocals stand out more than anything else. Well worth taking a look.

   "Rust In Peace...Polaris" (demo)
   It came as a shock to me when I found that Chris Poland (lead guitar on "Killing Is My business.." and "Peace Sells")  played the solo's this demo and the other demo songs too.
The vocals on the demo were done almost 180 degrees from the original or final outcome of the song. This track sounds a lot more bluesy than the original. Poland's guitar solo's sound strange too, sounds more like an old 80's keyboard than a guitar.

   Overall I have to say, that if you are a true metal head, a fan of the genre or anyone who just likes heavy music, has to buy this album if you don't have it already. To those who have the original, get the remix. It's 100% better than the original mix. This CD is going to be in my car for a long time cranking it out at high levels and annoying the other drivers around me. RIP should be in everyone's collection as a "must have" along with "Draconian Times" by Paradise Lost, "Master Of Puppets" by Metallica, "Burn My Eyes" by Machine Head or "The Cold White Light" by Sentenced or whatever album floats your boat.

   Friends, If you have read my reviews, you know I never give out 10's on any CD that comes across me. I have 450 CD's in my collection spanning 11 or 12 years of CD collecting and there is only 9 or 10 CD's in my collection that rate a 10. The original mix of RIP was a 10 and the remix, sonically, defeats it 100 fold. In my rating system I cannot rate above 10.  The remix is a 10 easily and the original would drop to a 8 by todays standards just by sound quality.


rating:  10/10    GO FUCKING GET THIS YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! AND THAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE.

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