Slayer Remasters - the Metal Blade Years

While looking at copies of Slayer's Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits on Monday, I noticed that there are currently two different versions of the remasters for sale. One can buy discs with a copyright of 1993, or discs with a date of 2004. Hrm, what to do?

I contacted Metal Blade and they told me the 2004 ones were the same remasters as the 1993 ones; only the artwork has changed. Thank The Maker for that.

My assessment is that these remasters are decent. Since they were done over 10 years ago, they're not plagued nearly as much by the loudness problems that I've heard on more recent discs. Considering how meh the production is on these records (hello reverb!), these remasters undoubtedly perform their intended function, namely, they improve upon the sound quality of the original CDs. So this is one of those rare cases where I'd most definitely spring for the remasters over the originals.