It's the same old Astley remasters again, only now they've somehow managed to get Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings into the fold as well (those recordings are owned by, whatever the name of the small-time label is), and Angel of Retribution and onwards (they haven't been remastered).
And yeah, I strongly disagree with Foro. British Steel remastered is completely ruined. It sounds very different and that accounts for all instruments. A lot less punch, you know, a lot less attack on say the drums as it's been heavily compressed and limited (to make it appear louder). You can really hear the compressors pulling the cymbals. The bass guitar is a lot more bassy (to make it sound more modern) and less punchy. The drums have less top end, due to multi band compression and you can hear more of the room too, also due to the compression squashing it so you hear quieter sounds more clearly.
The guitars are wider (actually the entire mix sounds a bit wider), fatter, and their spectral balance is different too. Their levels are evened out too. This annoys the hell out of me, as I think the guitar sound was perfect to begin with. They had the one million dollar sound.
The vocals are considerably quieter and more even in level and a bit less harsh. This is in some ways an improvement.
All in all, the remaster sounds more modern, but the original has more punch, all instruments have more dynamics (not just talking about the punch of the drums, but small variations in volume on all instruments. Like in Metal Gods, during the chorus when the guitars play the same riff as under the vocals, inbetween the phrases. That riff is considerably higher in lever on the original and more evened out in the remaster) and I think it sounds more organic. But the thing is, you can still enjoy both. If you don't actually hear the difference enough to be annoyed by it, or think that the more modern and wide and fatter/bassy sound makes it sound better, then by all means, enjoy it. I wouldn't have noticed the differences very much a few years ago, at least not to the extent to be annoyed by them. And as I recall, British Steel is the album that suffers most from the remastering process. Haven't compared the rest in a long time.
Edit: This inspires me to compare a couple of other Priest albums. I'll check back if anybody wants to hear my two cents. I will edit my post on and off, as I'm writing my impressions as I listen to them. Would probably be wiser to just write everything down and post a few hours later, but whatever. Sorry for that.
What I'm doing here is I put both tracks, original and remaster, and put them in a DAW, right under each other. I then bring down the remaster to the same perceived volume and then switch inbetween the tracks and then assess t hem.
Screaming for Vengeance: The remaster sounds definitely more packaged (read compressed). I think the remastering is more forgiving on this album, as the mix and music in itself is more suited for this type of sound. Again, less bright drums with less punch. The snare is clearly less audible. Edit again: Actually, the left vs right balance was a bit off on the whole mix on the original CD transfer I have, by around 1,5-2 dB. I double checked, so wasn't just the guitars. This has been taken care of on the remaster, and I'm going to fix the balance on my original files when I can be arsed.
The bass guitar is a bit of an improvement, but should be lowered in level a slight bit. The bass frequencies are more even in level, making the track sound a bit fatter. The guitars are more even and louder in level, a bit different in spectral balance.
Vocals. They are less sibilant. That's an improvement. There's a DeEsser at work, a luxuary they didn't have at their disposal back then I guess. They are also again, compressed a slight bit, making them sit a bit in the mix. I could have done with a slight bit less but I think it might be a bit of an improvement for my taste.
Guitars. Improvement at times, spectral wise and level wise. They have more bite, but aren't as round, so to speak, and KK's vs Glen's perceived volume is more even. This is a very good thing, as the right channel guitars often are a fair bit lower in volume.
Furthermore, as you can hear on the intro of Devil's Child, the signal to noise ratio is better on the remaster. You can hear the tape hiss on the original CD transfer.
Overall: Some slight improvements. The instruments glue together more (for better or worse), partially due to the multi band compression, but it sounds less exciting.
. Everything's at the same constant level, which if you compare the two becomes somewhat annoying. And the drums have less punch obviously. I am though, quite used to this, as most of my generation is. One good thing also, is that some details have been taken care of, like a drum fill on Devils Child, where the compression on the original kicks in a bit too heavy (ultra fine tunings weren't really possible at the time without massive efforts), has been fixed on the remaster.
I'm going to go ahead and assume this is the case for the rest of the albums as well. But bear in mind, that this does not take away from the enjoyment of the music. These are details that frankly most people don't pay attention to or care about that much. And the kind of sonic packaging is something we're all used to. And as I said, some other details have been improved on the remasters, like that drum fill I was talking about, and less sibilant vocals etc. So there are both good and bad things about the remasters. I think the bad outweighs the good though.
