Are there any Christian Metal Albums that you find painful to your ears?

I have been a Christian Rock and Metal Listener for a long time.  As you can see from my list of Artists that is what most of this is.  I show you the list to make a point before I ask my question.

Have you ever came across a Christian Metal Album that you couldn't listen too because the pitch of the instruments caused pain in your ears?

Lately I've been collecting some old Albums from Amazon.

I like the Band Titanic, once I found out that members all were apart of the Band Final Axe, I decided to buy those two Albums as well.  But there is just something about the pitch in the music that hurts my ears.  Another ones I'm having trouble with is Die Happy, and Vengeance Rising.

Code:

68
7 & 7 Is
77s
Aaron Shust
Aaron Sprinkle
A Celtic Tapestry
Adam Again
Adie
A Hill To Die Upon
Amy Lee
Ancient Prophecy
Andraé Crouch
Andrew Paul Woodworth
And Then There Were None
AnsoticcA
Antestor
Anti-Stress Music
Ashes Remain
As I Lay Dying
As They Sleep
August Burns Red
BarlowGirl
Barren Cross
Bebo Norman
Beckah Shae
Becoming the Archetype
Big Daddy Weave
Blindside
Bloodgood
Bluetree
Brain Head Welch
Brave Saint Saturn
Bride
Broomtree
Building 429
Building a Better Monster
Carlos Whittaker
Casting Crowns
Celtic Dreamtime
Celtic Woman
Children 18-3
Chloé Agnew
Chris Lizotte
Christafari
Chris Tomlin
CircleSlide
Collective Soul
Common Children
Crimson Moonlight
Curious Fools
Dakoda Motor Co
Damita
Da T.R.U.T.H
David Crowder Band
David Meece
Day of Fire
Deathbreaker
Death Therapy
Decyfer Down
Deliverance
Demon Hunter
Destroy the Runner
Die Happy
Disciple
Dizmas
Driver Eight
Earthsuit
Echoing Angels
Embodyment
Emery
Enya
Evanescence
Everyday Process
Explosions In The Sky
Extol
Fair
Falling Up
Famine
Fanmail
Final Axe
Fireflight
Fires of Babylon
First Love
Fit for a King
Flame
Flatfoot 56
Fleming & John
Flyleaf
Fold Zandura
For Today
Franc DAmbrosio
Future of Forestry
Gretchen
Group 1 Crew
Hammock
Haste the Day
Hawk Nelson
Hayley Westenra
HB
Heartland Aromatherapy
Holy Soldier
House of Heroes
I AM. 365 Names of God
I Am Empire
Im OK Youre OK
Impending Doom
Inhabited
Inhale-Exhale
I, The Breather
Ivoryline
Jackie Evancho
Jars of Clay
Jeremy Camp
JJ Heller
Joe Baker
John Elefante
John Elefante-Mastedon
Jonah33
Jon Foreman
Joy Electric
Julian Drive
K2s
Kids in the Way
King James
KJ-52
Klank
Klayton
Krystal Meyers
Kutless
Lacey Sturm
Leah
Leeland
Letter to the Exiles
Lisa Kelly
Living Sacrifice
Love and Death
Luti-Kriss
Lynda Randle
Lynn Hilary
Mad at the World
Máiréad Nesbitt
Mastedon
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster
Méav
Meredith Andrews
Messenja
Messiah
Michael Bloodgood
Michael Roe
Miss Angie
Mortal
Mortification
MuteMath
Mychildren Mybride
Nature Sounds
Neon Horse
Nevertheless
New Method
Newsboys
Norma Jean
Oh, Sleeper
Once Nothing
Orla Fallon
Passion
Petra
PFR
Phil Keaggy
Philmont
Phinehas
Pillar
Planetshakers
Plankeye
Plumb
Poor Old Lu
Project 86
Project Aegis
PURERELAX_TV
Quietime
Rachael Lampa
Red
Redeem the Exile
Red Umbrella
Relaxation - Ambient
Rex Carroll & The Bleed
Rock of Ages
Ruth Fazal
Saint
Sanctus Real
Sara Groves
Saviour Machine
Selah
Seven Stories Up
Seventh Angel
Seventh Day Slumber
Shaded Red
Showbread
Sick of Change
Sigur Ros
Since October
Six Feet Deep
Skillet
Sleeping Giant
Sleeping Romance
Sometime Sunday
Soulfood 76
Soulspell
Spark
Speck
Spoken
Staple
Starflyer 59
Stavesacre
Stephanie Forryan
T-Bone
Tenderfoot
The Almost
The Ascendicate
The Benjamin Gate
The Blamed
The Call
The Chariot
The Choir
The Crucified
The Devil Wears Prada
The Famine
The Fold
Theft
The Glorious Unseen
The Imperials
The Letter Black
Theocracy
The Piano Tribute Players
The String Tribute Players
The Swirling Eddies
The Temper Tantrums
The Violet Burning
The Wedding
The World Will Burn
Thousand Foot Krutch
Titanic
Todd Agnew
To Speak of Wolves
Tourniquet
Tragedy Ann
Troma
Undercover
Underneath the Gun
Underoath
Vandroya
Vedera
Velour 100
Vengeance Rising
Vision
V. Rose
War of Ages
Waterdeep
We Are The Fallen
We as Human
We Came as Romans
Whitecross
Wonrowe Vision
Wovenhand
Write This Down
ZOEgirl


Unless an album has been poorly recorded and mixed, I can't say there is anything pitch wise that would deter me from listening.  There are some things that turn me off on albums like extreme vocals, most progressive metal with super long songs, etc.  With those, though, it is more of a preference thing and not a pitch thing.

I am confused, though.  Are you really talking about the pitch or overall volume?  Pitch determines whether we hear something as higher or lower.  For example, we can hear the difference if a song is placed in A or C.

With mixing and mastering, most of the time these days everything is done with maximum loudness.  There are albums that give me ear fatigue in a short amount of time.  Could this be more what you are talking about?

Extol and David Meece in the same list?!?  I like you already!

To answer your question, the only music I've ever purchased that I find completely unlistenable is an old rock Christmas album called Big Steves - Not Xactly Xmas.  The vocals are so bad (including being pitchy) it almost seems they WANTED to sound bad, like they were making fun of Christian rock or something.  I'm pretty tolerant of poor production quality too.  Thin, demo-sounding recordings are still listenable to me.

uhh... to the OP, do you mean literal, physical pain or "I can't stand to listen to this" pain?

I don't think I can post pictures yet.

I think I'm talking about actual pain.  Final Axe, the song Slaves for example.  It seems like the guitar is set too high.  Turning down the EQ at 4Khz,5Khz,6.3Khz on a program called Ocenaudio helps just a little.  In my opinion a properly mixed album should "ok" on any sound system you play it on, regardless if it's got an EQ that you can adjust or not.  Any album should sound even better, the better audio system your using.  The albums I named, I can only make them sound tolerable on my computer.  In my car?  Forget about it!  On my Hifi mp3 player Forget about it!  I didn't mention this one in my original post but I also downloaded the mp3 version from Amazon, of Petra Jekyll & Hyde.  I couldn't get the highs low enough in my car to make it enjoyable.  And I've been a long time Petra fan.  I have the Petra farewell live album and it sounds good to me.  Speaking of Extreme.  I have the bands '68, Death Breaker, and Impending Doom for example, and they don't cause me pain even though there is some extreme screaming in the band '68.  It's a mystery to me.

One of the things I tried is:  I tried using Audacity to turn down some of the problem areas.  Then make new files and use them to play on my mp3 player and in my car.  Doing this helped a little bit, but doing it this way there is no way to completely dial it in.  I used the same head phones on my computer as I use on my mp3 player.  Just switching sources on the head set can make a big enough difference in pitch that you can't tell what's going on.

You might want to get that looked at, sounds at normal volume shouldn't cause physical pain.

Maybe the volume is too loud?!!

MetalMusicforJesus99 wrote:
Have you ever came across a Christian Metal Album that you couldn't listen too because the pitch of the instruments caused pain in your ears?

Just about all the most recent stuff does.

That clip you shared is missing some low end. The guitars are very tinny and the snare really pops. It might be the reason.

Black Rider wrote:You might want to get that looked at, sounds at normal volume shouldn't cause physical pain.

I agree.  If you mean physical pain, Die Happy, Vengeance Rising, and Petra - Jekyll & Hyde should do that (jokes about J&H aside).

I remember listening Tempest. I had to stop listening it. Didn’t sound good to my ears.

Precious Death--If You Must has always been very sharp to my ears.  I can still listen to it, but not at high volume.

This honestly sounds like a cheap sound system/headphone issue to me. Even if the production is extremely poor and treble-heavy on an album, a good pair of headphones will allow you to experience and recognize those qualities without being stabbed in the eardrum by air needles. I've got a pair that boasted "fruity treble" on the packaging. I don't know what that means, but I do know it's much more pleasant to listen to high-pitched raw black metal on that pair than any others I've had.

I can't think of any, but if it has happened it's pretty rare.

Even cheap demos can sound pretty good to me so I guess I'm not an audiophile.  I just want to sound clear with good songs and playing.  Preferrably analog!

jusma wrote:I remember listening Tempest. I had to stop listening it. Didn’t sound good to my ears.

They do sound rough.  I may play around with the mastering.

I find most new music is released is this way, with over compressed "Brickwalled"" and very loud sound.
Here are a few videos that may explain why it actually hurts your ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcKDMBuGodU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

MadKraken wrote:This honestly sounds like a cheap sound system/headphone issue to me. Even if the production is extremely poor and treble-heavy on an album, a good pair of headphones will allow you to experience and recognize those qualities without being stabbed in the eardrum by air needles. I've got a pair that boasted "fruity treble" on the packaging. I don't know what that means, but I do know it's much more pleasant to listen to high-pitched raw black metal on that pair than any others I've had.

This has been my experience. Cheapy poor fitting headphones can ruin even the latest greatest album that everyone is raving about. I would love to have a great pair of headphones at a reasonable cost THAT HAVE A 6 FOOT CORD.

That's me with my cheap computer speakers.  They don't cause pain though.

I tested my head phones before I bought them.  They are the Koss UR 40
Amazon Link Koss UR 40

I listen to music in my car.  It is a 2012 Ford Fiesta.  The thing I don't like about the Fiesta sound system is that they put the tweeter at almost the same level as my ears.  It makes sense why it's hard to get the highs low enough on some music.

Going back to my UR 40 head phones.  I noticed that sound quality does vary depending on what sound system they are plugged into.  I run them off of Sandisk Sansa Clip +  running rockbox, and usually sound great!  I run them off of Sandisk Jam Clip and they sound good there too.  I also run them off of FiiO M3K Mp3 player.  The place I get the absolute best sound off of the head phones is when I plug them into the Computer I built.  It's an Asus Z170M Plus.

What @deathisgain said is exactly what I noticed too.  However with that being said, I think some of my issue is my own hearing.  It varies.  Today I was listening to the same album clip on my FiiO M3K running the UR 40 Head Phones, and it wasn't bothering my ears like it was last month.  I got no idea what changed.  My only guess is I have seasonal allergies and that might effect what pitches of sound I hear.  Especially when the sound is on the edge of going over the comfort level.

You guys might find this clip interesting:
Audiophile or Audio-Fooled? How Good Are Your Ears?
https://youtu.be/YgEjI5PZa78

Another FiiO user!!!  I still have my trusty, albeit old, X5.  I have used it everywhere I have gone for the past three years.  I changed to the M9 this year because I wanted to try Bluetooth connectivity.  It really wasn't an upgrade because I haven't found any GREAT sounding Bluetooth headphones, and having the M9 synced to the truck stereo keeps my phone from being able to connect so I can have hands free calling and texting.  With Tennessee's new law about getting ticketed even for having a phone in your hand even if it isn't in use, I NEED hands-free calling.

alldatndensum wrote:Another FiiO user!!!  I still have my trusty, albeit old, X5.  I have used it everywhere I have gone for the past three years.  I changed to the M9 this year because I wanted to try Bluetooth connectivity.  It really wasn't an upgrade because I haven't found any GREAT sounding Bluetooth headphones, and having the M9 synced to the truck stereo keeps my phone from being able to connect so I can have hands free calling and texting.  With Tennessee's new law about getting ticketed even for having a phone in your hand even if it isn't in use, I NEED hands-free calling.

I wish I could put rockbox on my FiiO.  My FiiO player seems to be little higher in pitch then my Sandisk Sansa Clip + is.  Once I got rockbox installed on my Sandisk Sansa Clip + player, it went from a really good sounding player to an awesome mind blowing player.  It's got so many sound features now you need to read the documentation just to figure it all out!  But the best part is they got the metadata correct!  You can't put rockbox on just any oh hardware.

I watched the video links on the Loudness Wars destroying music.  I agree that it's some of my problem, but not all of it.  I found this video https://youtu.be/moO8KZ9yXb0 In my opinion they shouldn't try to squeeze every last drop out of a compressor, but some compression is good.  I guess because it's "Metal" and Metallica did it, everyone else thinks they need to do it too.  I remember in an interview with John Schlitt: He was asked how come the concert volume is so loud.  He said that they could do it in half the volume but they didn't want people coming to the concerts to leave saying that's not rock music.  I think that is the same reasoning why our Metal bands make the albums as loud as possible.  It does seem that compression can bring out undesirable pitch, depending on the sounds that was already in the recording before the compression was added.

Most people over 40 are not supposed to hear above 14k. But I can hear 15k in this YouTube just fine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyKEf4bu0I&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3RYDCYrLkXfCkl4q2ssWpsUBkc2SSw_efgLSYT0t4UPZphgVKTjJi__K0

oldschooldoom wrote:Most people over 40 are not supposed to hear above 14k. But I can hear 15k in this YouTube just fine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyKEf4bu0I&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3RYDCYrLkXfCkl4q2ssWpsUBkc2SSw_efgLSYT0t4UPZphgVKTjJi__K0

I'm 40 and I can hear that too.