Forbidden Evil was sounding pretty distorted even in 1989 when it came out although it was because the production sucked, not because of a loud mastering.
That being said, the 1999 remaster is acceptable, the 2008 remaster is horrendous.
yeah I pretty much agree except for Forbidden's first album being distorted. I think it's pretty clear sounding, thin yes, but clear.
Downfall WOULD have been great had that not touched anything past 1khz. It has no mid-high to high range making it extremely muffled. The low-end sounds great though.
Here's a new one, where the winner isn't so obvious:
I've also compared many remasters on my home system. Some of the albums I compared and practically identical...I am not even sure they are sonically touched (I didn't do a null test to find the differences though) and sometimes wonder if the remaster tag extends to slight differences in packaging or having bonus tracks. I find most of the time the remasters often sound worse. It is clear most albums are remastered for increased sales during the loudness war.
Earache is the best for this. Everything comes in three releases now :
1) the original
2) a crushed to fuck remaster during the late 90s and early 00s to resell their albums again
3) Special FDR release....stands for "Full Dynamic Range" which just means they are selling the original album again with this new marketing tag. Offering what the competition don't! lol
I am surprised they aren't selling 24/96 versions of all their shit yet. Another industry ripoff to sell to audiophiles with their $6000 gold cables