This article could be sub-titled "The day I introduced my cats to SENSURROUND"......! For those of you who weren't a mid 70's disaster film fan, the "sensurround" effect was introduced in the film "Earthquake"..a "B" movie gem that put to screen the terror of a massive slip along California's San Andreas fault. While L.A. was in the throws of an earthquake...the cameraman shook the frame...and the audience not so much heard as "FELT" the destruction. The phenomena resulted in "Earthquake" winning an Oscar for "Best Sound". What we didn't know then was that we had just experienced the full-on sub-woofer effect.
Fast forward 30 years to yesterday afternoon. In searching my library of dvds to review I decided to grab Metallica's "Black" album. It seemed like a timely pick as the band prepares to release their documentary "Some Kind of Monster" on July the 9th.
As an aside, it was also an attempt to get my stinking cats to stop using the grills of my reference series Klipsch speakers for scratching posts......#$%*#&*%#(*($#%*$#$&$$@#$#@....!
Anyways...in 1991 Metallica released a genre defining masterpiece. What started out as an uneven, unremarkable, thin sounding batch of demos became the explosive rafter rattling instant classic simply known as "The Black Album". It roared sonically and commercially resulting in worldwide catalog sales exceeding 90 million....that's a spicy sausage...
It was 10 years later when Metallica revisited this masterpiece and remastered it for audiophiles. I know what yer thinking...Metallica and audiophile aren't exactly synonymous. Straight up..."The Black Album" is a hard-hitting pipe-swinging defining example of what DVD-A is capable of.
And that's not to say that the original release wasn't great. Afterall, Producer Bob Rock knows a thing or two about getting the most out of BIG production. Although; after hearing this version in 5.1 audio you will banish your cd copy to the Firebird.
The impact of "Black" 5.1 is immediate. From the opening chords of "Enter Sandman", a sense of space and depth is readily apparent. Once the song begins to surge the entire building is subjected to Metallica in full blown sensurround. Even at medium volume, the bass drivers all fire BIG while the rear channels scream out Kirk Hammett's fiery guitar fills.
At this point the cats are looking alarmingly at me...their pointed little ears alternating between the center and front channel speakers only to collectively jump....high...when the rears bark. I mumble, "I'll teach youse a thing or two about woodworking my speakers". Like a mad scientist working feverishly over his test tubes, I maddeningly giggle as the opening crunch of "Sad but True" sends a pair of cats running for cover under the couch. "There's no escape for you now" as I increase power to about 60%. The sub-woofer comes alive with a frequency so low that I can imagine Toronto's Skydome suddenly begin to resonate....
Seriously though...even at low to medium volume there's plenty of bass to go around. The album's quieter singles sparkle with a vibrancy that was completely lost on the original release. For instance, "The Unforgiven", opens with its maddening drone, increasing in volume and pitch. At the apex, a haunting acoustic guitar rings out of the fronts and signals a drum roll for the rears. The effect is astounding. Where the original release relied on volume control, this one startles with its' spatial arrangement.....for the drum roll seems to originate in Scarborough....a suburb of Toronto some 10 miles east of here. In other sections, the listener is placed squarely inside Lars Ulrich's drum kit as snare, toms and kick alternate between all 4 cornered speakers. Now I know what it must've felt like to have been seated center stage in the hollow of the snakepit...a place where a few select fans had the opportunity to attend a meeting of Metallica. Skipping ahead to "Don't Tread On Me", the "America" excerpt from "West Side Story" screams out for attention while typical Metallica crunch rebounds all around the room. It's a beauty eh...
This DVD-A also comes in high-resolution stereo suitably tweaked for for those who aren't yet 5.1 enabled. As a bonus extra; Metallica included a short clip from the "Classic Album" series detailing the construction of "Black".
Overall; this is truly a hard rock classic which should convince all metalheads to get some sensurround-ed. As for the cats; they retreated that day only to mount a full scale attack last night. The speaker's grill was torn off sometime last night and some of the material was shredded.
PS. Motorhead, Iron Maiden and Megadeth are somewhat home theater represented too. Up the Irons!
