Rockers Metallica have hit back at accusations their new album features poor quality audio.
The new LP, Death Magnetic, has been a worldwide hit - scoring number ones in both the US and the UK.
But the record has been dogged by claims that the CD features tracks which are substandard to the versions on the Guitar Hero video game.
However, the band's co-manager Cliff Burnstein insists that the fans' reaction to the disc has been "overwhelmingly positive". He tells the Wall Street Journal: "There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to."
The complaints are that the CD is compressed so it sounds louder and more forceful - at the expense of sound quality. An online petition to have the album re-mixed or remastered has, at the time of writing, 11,283 signatures.
Ted Jensen, who mastered the Death Magnetic, has already distanced himself from the album. In a message to fans, he wrote: “I'm not proud to be associated with this one.”
Neither album producer Rick Rubin or the band themselves have made an official response to the controversy.
WENN / 3 News