Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Queen Available Now
Side one starts out with Queen’s back-to-back anthemic classics, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” Does it get any better for a Queen fan? Hell no!
The stomps and claps that introduce the former should make you feel like you are in a stadium full of people with a single goal – to rock you.
Those stomps and claps need weight and clarity, an unusual combination. One without the other is not going to cut it.
The record needs to be able to reproduce the room everybody is in, while still conveying the tremendous impact and power. Most domestic pressings are severely lacking in these areas. This kind of anemia can be frustrating — you want to rock but the sound won’t let you.
Another quality our best copies excelled in was the sound of Brian May’s guitar during his solo toward the end of the song. Here his tone is very boxy with no real highs or lows, but when that sound is exaggerated by bad mastering, it sounds like there are mattresses sitting in front of his amplifiers. The best copies had extension on the high end, restoring the clarity and complimenting his distinctive technique.