sirlemonhead

The original guitarist is Jonathan Carlemar and it doesn't sound like he's back?

Nah, I like that this is their thing.

Lol yeah a bit dramatic

After a couple of listens, I actually quite like this a lot. It's a real grower. It stands out a bit more than some of the songs on the new album and it'd be nicer to have than some of the filler stuff on side B of that. The mastering is shit, like the album, unfortunately.

Bitrate isn't going to affect the brickwalling at all. I've got uncompressed FLAC too but I'm listening on good headphones rather than in a car or on a phone so it's probably to do with that.

The Facebook page for the band is full of buttkissers. The band could put out a CD of them all farting into a microphone and they'd all say they love it. I've listened to it a bit more now myself and I do like the songs too

All their previous albums are brickwalled to some extent, but the new one is just incredibly bad. It genuinely becomes uncomfortable for me to listen to the new album for more than one song at a time.

It's actually difficult to figure out the lyrics sometimes, on Tainted Blood for example

Phew, I'm glad it's not just me that hates the brickwalling.

I'm really disappointed in this album. I think it's probably automatically going to become my least favourite H.E.A.T release due to the mastering. It's fucking LOUD. The levels have all been pushed to 100% so everything is just a mush of white noise. I put the album on last night and had ear fatigue by about 4 songs in. I skipped around but can't really form much of an opinion on the songs yet bar that I like Not for Sale quite a lot. I was so excited to hear Kenny again but he sounds quite buried in the mix. You can't even really tell what the guitars are doing in the choruses due to that pumping mush of noise. I dunno if I can manage a full playthrough of the thing It's awful. I have the vinyl arriving today and I hope to god it's better.

Thank you for the free CD I got to listen to before everyone else! 10/10

Yeah another weak chorus which seems to be their thing the last two albums unfortunately. Mastering is FUCKING loud again - my ears hurt after listening to it. Am loving having Kenny back all the same!

It gives me strong Iron Maiden vibes, which I don't like and don't want from H.E.A.T but it's not a bad song at all.

Kenny is definitely a little bit lower in the mix than the vocals on the previous few albums. The mastering itself doesn't sound great - the whole thing sounds really hot, granted I've only listened to the Spotify version so hard but it's one of those ear tiring modern 'everything on 10' no dynamics masterings. I like it in general, Kenny sounds really good as expected, right out the bat I love how he sings that first line. The chorus is fairly weak, very similar to the choruses on the previous album, slightly repetitive and a little annoying to be honest..

Can't wait for this!