Yes it has

I picked mine up this week at JB Hi-Fi in Melbourne (city). It was crazy because I didn't even know it existed for some reason. I was having a quick browse in the hard rock dvd section and 'voila' - something that said 'Strapping Young Lad' on it. It was kind of a 'Does not compute - Does not compute' moment. I had to take a closer look. And sure enough, it was a new dvd/cd set. Wow! Ran home and checked it out later on. This is a fantastic little bonus to cap off the whole SYL experience. I really like the cd because, if you listen to it start to finish, it's really interesting to hear the progression of sound between the albums, in one sitting - which you don't get when you change discs. All the liner notes are amazing as well - really happy the band decided to contribute that to it. Can anyone confirm if Dev remixed/remastered the songs off HAARHT? I think that's what it said on the sticker before I ripped off the plastic, but can't recall now. The songs on this from that album do sound a bit beefier, but maybe that's cause I hadn't heard them in a while on headphones. Anyone know?

Thanks SYL for the whole journey

\m/

HAARHT and City have been re-released in remastered form, so I guess the remastered tracks also made it to the Chaos Years CD. I don't believe Devin did the remixing himself though. I remember Tracy saying that Dev was barely involved in the remixes, it's all Century Media's doing.

Ah, Ok. I've definitely got the City remaster (not that one can tell much of a difference), but I didn't realize that the re-release of HAARHT was a remaster also. Interesting. It seems crazy to remaster an album without Dev's total input given that he is so involved in the entire sound of every album he produces. Sounds like a Century Media attempt at making a few more $ without doing it the right way.

Come to think of it, are there any remastered albums out there that are really noticeably different from the original recording, metal wise? I've got the remastered version of Sepultura's 'Arise' which is pretty good, and I think it is pretty different. Any others?

I don't think remasters are meant to drastically change the sound of an album, but to make it sound better. Technology gets more and more advanced, and public opinions change, so old albums are sometimes polished up to make them sound more up-to-date. I think HAARHT could really use a remaster (although I don't have it).
And Opeth's Still Life (1999) was recently remastered, because the original recordings had some glitches (apparently the master tape got fumbled up or something) that they've been able to fix with modern-age technology.

You know, I think a better idea than a remaster would be a re-record! In some cases. Especially some of the older, classic metal albums going back to the 80's that would really have benefited from digital recording techniques. I think Slayer's 'South of Heaven' needs a re-record like ASAP! Sure, it's clear and everything, but it's so flat! And something like 'Ride The Lightning' or even 'Justice' by Metallica would be great candidates also. Let's not even bother mentioning 'St. Anger', hehe. I love how the boys from Meshuggah basically did this with the re-release of 'Nothing' - the guitars were completely re-recorded, a new crash symbal was added to replace a crappy one from the original recording, and then the whole album was remixed and remastered. It's fantastic! This should be done more often IMO. But getting back to SYL, a think an amazing treat/swansong to the whole thing would be a complete re-record of HAARHT with all the current members, utilising Dev's amazing production skills of the present! Forget the remaster. Hell, they know the songs well enough. It should only take a couple months to do it and I'm certain people would buy it! I would

Its seems that SYL's myspace page has finally been updated, and is themed around the Chaos Years. I was hoping that they'd post the Almost Again vid, but they just have some video promoting the cd/dvd.