Worthwhile Remasters and Reissues

[Hambeast]

I was reading through the Metallica thread and looking at some of the new remasters and it got me thinking: Are there many albums which get the remastering treatment and actually need/deserve it, or is it mostly a cash grab?

Thinking back about remasters I've listened to, there haven't been any which immediately stand out as being overly worthwhile to me over the original, although there's a good chance that's just down to my complete lack of attention. A lot of the time I'd have to sit down and do a side-by-side comparison to notice anything other than the volume being a lot louder.

Any examples of remasters which have a night and day difference? I think there was a Megadeth one where he added trumpets or something, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering that correctly.

Reissues seem handy for people wanting to get their hands on something which has been long out of print and additional tracks are usually a nice extra bonus, but I'm guessing they'll start becoming somewhat irrelevant with digital music taking over.

[Wiseblood]

Those Megadeth ones were remixed and remastered and Mustaine added sections and even re-recorded sections. They are pretty much abysmal .
The Metallica ones are a little louder and feck all else as far as I can see. They have put in lots of effort on the deluxe sets though.

[ldj]

^ The remix of Killing of my Business that came out last year is worth picking up imo, better than the original and 2002 remaster, the 2002 remasters are shite though.

The remix of Soundgarden's Ultramega OK is great too.

The reissue's  of Death's stuff that Relapse did a few years ago were worth it.

[Trev]

Yeah the Death stuff should be the standard for any reissues/remasters, did a phenomenal job on them

[leatherface]

Those Death reissues are the only reissues I have bothered collecting, great liner notes/photos too. As mentioned before the Megadeth ones are awful, get the original copies if they still even exist.

[blessed1]

i never had any interest in remasters. they pretty much are just louder versions of the original.
are there actually any proper remixes that are better than the originals?

[Goatlord]

I got the Metallica ones - cannot hear a whole lot of difference between these, the half speed and the DMM. The one lately that was a complete surprise was "Individual Thought Patterns", there is a hell of a difference which takes nothing away from the original.

[Trev]

I've only ever heard the early Megadeth stuff on the reissues, and quite enjoyed them (given I didn't have anything to compare them to). Is there that much different that it'd be worth picking up the originals?

[Wiseblood]

There's a lot different about the originals.

[StoutAndAle]

The 2012 Southern Lord version of Sleep's "Dopesmoker" is a night & day improvement on the version released by London Records as "Jerusalem" - in my opinion.

I've only heard the 2003 Tee-Pee records edition of "Dopesmoker" once, in a Chicago record shop that was playing it, but it also sounded better than the original. Although that might have been because I was half-steamed on a break from a day drinking session and yer man in the shop cranked it when I asked him to.

As a non-metal aside - the 2009 remaster of The Beatles back-catalogue are exceptional.

The recent re-working of Bowie's Berlin period albums on the other hand are utter dog shit.

One band whose body of work could do with being re-mastered or at least cleaned up is Black Flag. I remember reading/hearing that Rollins offered to pay for it to be done back in the early '00s and not take a penny from the profits but Greg Ginn shot him down.

[Ducky]

i never had any interest in remasters. they pretty much are just louder versions of the original.
are there actually any proper remixes that are better than the originals?

As mentioned, the Death ones, especially Human.

It still has the original feel, but it has much better dynamics, the drums sound more natural and better, which brings out some of Reinhart's subtleties and DiGiorgio's playing is also much more audible, really enhances what he did on that record. The guitars are punchier too.

Human is my all time favourite record, but I will never reach for the original (or whatever version of it is on the Century Media version I have) over the remix; the remix is the definitive version, IMO.

[Trev]

Just picked up some of the Bal Sagoth reissues (Black Moon and Battle Magic). Never heard the original versions before, anyone know how they compare to them?

[Carnage]

The recent Maiden remasters (the digipaks) sound amazing, first time Piece Of Mind has sounded decent to my ears.

[Pedrito]

Just picked up some of the Bal Sagoth reissues (Black Moon and Battle Magic). Never heard the original versions before, anyone know how they compare to them?

Interesting..are they on CD or Vinyl?

[Trev]

They're on cd, don't know if they were ever put out on vinyl?