Rage Against The Machine – The Battle Of Los Angeles

This pressing has a very shrill and unpleasant sound quality. It sounds squished, and poorly EQ'd. There is hardly any bass, and the upper frequencies just rip your ears out at a high volume. It's a shame, RATM are one of the biggest bands to not have full, proper "audiophile" grade reissues. It would be great it someone could cut this from the uncompressed masters. Until then, stick with the original CD over this. (The original EU & MOV pressings sounds quite good, by the way...)

This is my favorite RATM album. Front to back - filled with bangers.

Sonically, this is a bit of disappointment. Recording and mixing was done by Brendon O’Brien. He is one of the best in the industry. However, the mastering was done to brickwall everything. There is little to no room for the instruments and vocal to breathe in the mix.

If you crank it up, it’s a great background music to listen to. If you try to sit through for a front to back listening, you will for sure suffer from ear fatigue.

This album is mixed in a way it can sound muddy, even the MOV one which i had the chance to hear isn't anything like say their S/T album. There's no way in hell any remastering will make it audiophile grade album.

The night I listened to this, I started with the MoFi press of In a Silent Way by Miles Davis, and followed that up with the last full length from the Chicago indie band Hidden Hospitals (who, from the material I’ve sampled from them on wax, seems to care a lot about how their music ends up on vinyl). Both of these records were incredibly dynamic and full of life and scale, much more so than the digital versions I had become familiar with. So after reading all the positive reviews for this pressing of my favorite RATM album, I decided to save it for last as the big finish for the night.

I’m disappointed to say it was the least impactful record of the night. You can tell there is a huge slapper of an album somewhere in the grooves, but the mastering is too poor to give it a chance to shine. I am fully under the impression this is a digital mastering since it feels like there’s a ceiling on how the scale can unfold on each track, which is sad considering the Miles Davis record is also sourced from DSD (though you’d never know without checking) but does not remotely suffer from the same issues. The bass is muddy and overpowers the transients of the other instruments, making them sound distant and weak in comparison. Vocals are muffled under the mess of instruments in a way I don’t recall on countless car listens at full volume. Drums sound flat in a full band context and don’t punch the way I desired to hear them hit.

Needless to say, I finished the first half and shelved it, moving onto a Boris 7” boxset that had arrived from Japan a couple of days before (which got the bad taste out of my mouth and ended the night on a high note). I cannot recommend this album unless you have a budget player where dynamics will not be at the forefront of your listening experience. Anyone with a half decent setup should definitely avoid this press.

Copy sounded good but two Side 1 labels. I guess for $15 there can be no complaints.

Just came to say that mine sounds fantastic, flat disk with no surface noise. Happy to finally own this monster

This is, without doubt, the worst condition new record I've ever bought. There was a ton of extra material around the outside of the disk, and the sleeve was full of shavings. Both sides were badly scuffed, scratched, and hazy. Somehow, it doesn't sound nearly as bad as it looks, but it's still not exactly impressive. A fair bit of pops and static throughout. This album deserves a lot better.

So happy this is a worthy reissue. No problems with my copy, sounds really clean. The start of Calm Like A Bomb just hits right.

Got a nice clean pressing and it sounds fantastic after a quick wet clean to get release agent out of grooves.

Record came in a cardboard sleeve with shavings. Very scuffed and had blemishes. Really unfortunate but be prepared to possibly return.