Mike Mettler

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Music Reviews
Abbey Road - Anniversary Edition (Super Deluxe Version)
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 06, 2019
Performace
Sound
The Beatles were, for all intents and purposes, over. While new, original music would follow in May 1970 with the release of Let It Be, the balance of the recording sessions for what ultimately became September 1969's Abbey Road is generally acknowledged as the in-studio swan song for those four Liverpool moptops who forever defined, if not outright created, the popular music artform in the 1960s.
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Track One
Aerosmith Redraw the Line
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 25, 2012

Those wondering whether Aerosmith could still kick ass and take names live saw any lingering doubts dissipate with the band’s vibrant 107-minute show at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 24.

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Music Reviews
Al Stewart: Year of the Cat: 45th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 09, 2021
Performance
Sound
Al Stewart is the kind of seasoned artist known for being well worth the wait. The Scottish-born and London-bred Stewart initially focused on mining a folk-driven vein when he made his debut with October 1967's orchestrally buttressed Bed Sitter Images, and it took the burgeoning singer/songwriter five more albums and another eight years until he truly hit his stride with March 1975's Modern Times.
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Other Tech
Alan Parsons Does 5.1 Live on XM
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 05, 2006

Live music in surround: You just can't beat it. When S&V was asked if we'd like to head down to our nation's capital and see Alan Parsons do an installment of Artist Confidential in 5.1 for XM Satellite Radio back on March 4, we jumped at the chance.

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Other Tech
Alan Parsons on 5.1 Music Mixing, Live and Studio
Mike Mettler  |  May 31, 2006

In our previous installment, S&V traveled to Washington, DC, to sit in on the recording of Alan Parsons' groundbreaking installment of Artist Confidential in 5.1 for XM Satellite Radio back in March.

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Immersive Audio FileSpatial Audio File
Alan Parsons Tells Us Tales of Atmos Remixing and Imagination for The Alan Parsons Project’s Deluxe Pyramid Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 30, 2024

Alan Parsons has long been acknowledged as a pioneering surround-sound mixer/producer all the way back to the early days of quad, and now he’s finally triangulated his sights on the kind of project we’ve all been waiting for—namely, by taking the maiden Dolby Atmos remixing voyage into his own deep catalog as the co-mastermind behind The Alan Parsons Project. Parsons’ initial APP-in-Atmos foray appears on the Blu-ray that’s included in the new 4CD/1BD/2LP Super Deluxe Edition box set for their May 1978 release, Pyramid, via the ironically named Cooking Vinyl label. During a recent Zoom interview, Parsons and music editor Mike Mettler discussed his overall Atmos goals for Pyramid, what he was able to “correct” in Atmos, and his dream Atmos mixes for other artists. . .

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Music Reviews
Alex Lifeson on the Mixing of Envy of None’s New Album in Dolby Atmos (and Some Rush Talk Too)
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 27, 2025

Irony, your official band name has duly been dubbed Envy of None. That’s the tres-cool moniker for a four-piece Canadian/American band that includes vocalist/keyboardist Maiah Wynne, multi-instrumentalists Andy Curran (Coney Hatch) and Alf Annibalini, and guitarist Alex Lifeson, the latter of whom you may know from his innovative halcyon decades in that little ol’ prog-rock trio from Ontario known as Rush. Read music editor Mike Mettler’s in-depth review of the all-new Dolby Atmos mix of EON’s sophomore effort, Stij(ē)ən Wāvs, to see how just how well they fare in the 360-degree universe. . .

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Spatial Audio File
All I Wanna Do, Is Spatial Audio
Mike Mettler  |  May 13, 2022
A veritable houseful of tracks by L.A. legends The Doors came onto the Dolby Atmos marketplace last week. Being a consummate fan of the legendary envelope-pushing ’60s band, I just had to check them out, most especially one of my absolute favorite tracks of theirs—“Riders on the Storm,” the last cut on Side 2 of their April 1971 swan song of sorts, L.A. Woman. I say “swan song” only because it was their last album with vocalist/lyricist/shaman-in-chief Jim Morrison as frontman. (Sadly, and somewhat mysteriously, Morrison passed away in Paris, France just three short months after L.A Woman was released.)
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Almost Famous
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 15, 2021
Picture
Sound
Extras
As someone nicknamed "Almost Famous" by the road crew of a band I've been embedded with on scores of their North American tours over the past two decades, I can attest firsthand to the accuracy of every backstage moment seen on unadulterated display in director/screenwriter Cameron Crowe's film of the same name. Indeed, Almost Famous is Crowe's love-letter depiction of his early/ mid-1970s zeitgeist years spent as a geeky teenage scribe desperately trying to act cool while seeking to chronicle the true essence of rock & roll and life on the road.
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Music Reviews
Aloe Blacc: “Don’t Go Alone” and “Breakthrough” in Dolby Atmos
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 23, 2025

Staying on the positive tip here in the home stretch of Black History Month, soulful singer/rapper Aloe Blacc has released five tracks in Dolby Atmos ahead of the official February 28, 2025, release of his new, 12-song album from whence they came, Stand Together. Read Mike Mettler’s review of a pair of them — the positive-vibe duo that is “Don’t Go Alone” and “Breakthrough” — to find out just how Blacc conquers the 360-degree realm. . .

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