Search - Warrior Soul :: Salutations From the Ghetto Nation

Salutations from a horrendous remastering

The Online Cowboy | Minneapolis, MN | 10/15/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The first time I saw Warrior Soul live was on this album and tour back in 92 at First Avenue/7th Street Entry in Minneapolis. Me and my friends LOVED Salutations with a passion when it came out. This was when I was in college and I remember turning quite a few people onto it. What I remember most however, is when we played it for the first time and how we were completely blown away by the phenomenal production. "Love Destruction" came pouring out of the speakers like it was proclaiming the beginning of a new republic. The entire first half of Salutations was remarkable in its order of songs, content, structure and crystalline production that while it wouldn't normally work for just any band, for Warrior Soul this was the sound that I thought best represented the band.



The second half fared well enough but was bogged down by a couple tracks I thought were skip worthy like "I Love You" and "The Golden Shore". The album closes out with another great big bang like Last Decade's "In Conclusion" with "Ghetto Nation". The song has slight volume issues however. 26 seconds into the song the lead guitar is brought out too far into the mix before the lead is brought back down into the mix at around 51 seconds for the first verse, which in turn makes the staccato guitar riff during the first verse a lot less dramatic. Overall though, accolades to Kory on that fantastic production and mixing. My friends and I were really impressed at what a great job he and the various assistants did on this peak of the Warrior Soul catalog.



This was the first of the three discs from the newly remastered Warrior Soul series from Escapi Music that I received. At first I was really surprised that the catalog was being remastered, but overjoyed non the less. Salutations was the only remaster of the three (Last Decade, and drugs) I bought that actually played in my car.



The first thing I noticed was the crackling audible at the beginning of "Love Destruction" while Pete plucks on the bass that was never there before. And if it was, it was now being "brought out" through the failed technique of this remastering. I let it go, the full band kicks in (10 seconds) and it does not get any better. Yes the sound was brought out and it was louder, but instead of bringing out more depth and instrumental emphasis, it became an unlistenable mess at a loud volume due to the fact that there was too much high end causing a clearly audible static, crackly distortion in the mix. All the warmth of the original was gone. These distorted levels appear throughout the rest of the remastered Salutations making this a sad example of a thoroughly unsatisfying experience and purchase.



A stellar example of the remastering process put to overwhelmingly superior use would be the example set by the gold standard of Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. The sound on these new releases is unquestionably better than the old first generation cd pressings.



Now I realize that budgets are probably different between The Rolling Stones and Warrior Soul, I get it. But after listening again to the original Geffen recording it was like "What's the point?" Of all the Warrior Soul creations Salutations From The Ghetto Nation did not need to be touched up or loudend. Of course I did not figure this out until after listening to Ghetto 2006. Certainly not as embarassing as the remixed mess but no less a depressing coda that is the three "bonus" live tracks at the end, these live tracks sound like they were recorded on my Grandfathers old Sears Robuck tape recorder he used for speeches. Sad they couldn't at least add a couple of songs from the Warrior Soul b-sides disc that I'm sure not too many people bought. Anything HAD to have been better.



People, here what I say, unless you thought Salutations was lacking in high end volume and not enough static and crackling peppering the mix, stay with the original Geffen release."