I personally don't have problems with modern metal albums being a little loud and compressed. In my opinion, that compressed sound fits the music. Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' is taking it way too far though. The recording isn't that great, and it sounds like the mixing guy just took a pretty lame mix and just brickwalled it to make it sound 'heavy'. If you want to go heavy with compression, then do it the Chris (or Tom) Lord-Alge way. He mixes Green Day, Sevendust, MCR and a lot of modern rock/metal bands, and the sound is always great.
Another comparison: Muse's Absolution vs. The Resistance. Absolution sounds pretty good, but it is mastered so loud that the compression just takes the life out of the music at times. The Resistance is probably just as loud, if not louder. But the mix is crystal clear! Same with 10,000 Days, it's clipping like mad, but somehow it doesn't do any harm to the music at all.
Rule with hard rock/metal: Get it as loud as you possibly can without sacrificing the sound quality. That shouldn't be so difficult now would it?