There's still no official announcement from Metallica over the appaling brickwalled mix of Death Magnetic that's been sold on CD. But it seems that some parts of the music industry media are picking up on the story.

You can read an interesting article on the problems with the Death Magnetic CD over at musicradar.com.

Thankfully it seems the awful audio problems the CD displays were not introduced when the tracks were laid down in the studio. They seem to be the product of a terrible studio master by Rick Rubin's engineers and then a hot master from the record company on top.

How can we be sure?

...

Because the version of the album in the game Guitar Hero III sounds superb. You can hear the bass and there's no clipping or digital distortion.

The album sounds ten times better in the game, so it seems Neversoft received a version of the tracks before they were hyped up by the engineers.

Why is that good news? It means a fixed release is possible without the band having to go back into the studio. It also means that folks have already begun ripping this vastly superior versions of the songs and sharing them online.

And while one can't condone theft - one hopes this forces Metallica and the record company into making an official statement on the issue.

Update: Even The Guardian has picked up on this story now.