I don't know if I'd put it quite in those terms, but I've had similar experiences. I just bought Wolf's The Black Flame yesterday and really have a difficult time listening to it. It seems there are some elements that I can latch onto, but it is like trying to get a grip on a stainless steel wall that has been slathered in petroleum jelly. Dance of Death was an album that produced the same result. When I was in the car listening to it on one occassion I thought that I may have been hasty in my previous judgement, but when I gave it a more focused listen at home through the headphones it was a strain to listen to it.
This makes me wonder how much aural/psychological manipulation factors into all of this. Not out of the bounds of possibility that a multi-billion dollar industry is going to due a little tinkering with some test subjects to see how loud translates into sales by measuring brain patterns and such. Same premise as television--where the commercials between shows are often a blaring wall of sound compared to the programming around them.
They are even becoming more senseless, really. What is particularly wasteful is the current vogue of releasing expanded editions of albums for no other reason than to quickly reach into the same pockets twice while maximizing profit margins (e.g. Enemy of God, Warrior Soul, and Hazardous Mutation re-releases).
