Just discovered this version recently and it really makes me feel disappointed about the official version of the album. There's more bass, drums are somewhat punchier, more dynamics, and the vocals feel slightly more natural, the mastering engineer somewhat butchered the final version. I'm prolly guessing the label (or Don Gilmore) wanted to suck the bass out and have the levels pushed all the way up I can imagine it's the same case with Meteora
I haven't listened to the unmastered version of these songs in a pretty long time but, hearing them now, I get what you mean. There are pros and cons - I think the vocal mixing is better in the final release, but hearing more prominent bass guitar is indeed nice.
Imagine being so enamored with nostalgia for an album that you're this quick to jump to its defense when you probably don't even know what's being talked about.
Hmm never heard of it either. Notice some of the song titles are different. Are they different songs or just different names? What else should I know about this?
Some of the songs didn't have their final titles yet and I'd assume the tracklisting hadn't been fully decided upon either. Every mix is fairly different from the one heard on the eventual album, some of them even have extra drum fills, scratching parts and such which were eventually muted/deleted. You can consult @Astat for more details
Completely agree, but you get the feeling that HT wouldn't have sold as well if it was released instead.