they reckon frank zappa fucked all his albums up when he remastered them

I agree that for good production, the most important thing is to fit the music. I love plenty of really polished albums, including "Mer de Noms", and I would say that if there's such a thing as 'overdoing' that, Devin has, but I love just about all his production jobs aside from "Alien", which is too compressed. I've definitely heard some overly clean records.

it's weird to think about prodcution cause if you think about you own collection bands like A Perfect Circle or of course Devin's stuff it's great to hear every layer, but who would change the old rock and metal bands? You wouldn't wanna change them to be nice and polished. As long as you don't try and re-create the old raw sounds (St Anger anyone )

production all depends on what kind of music you're making really. I mean for example, death/black metal stuff wouldn't have the same effect if it were pristinely produced in a crispy, antiseptic, 8 mics to everything that makes a slight bit of noise recording studio, just the same as devs music wouldn't be the same inside a studio the size of a photo booth with one mic hanging from the ceiling. production can't really be too GOOD, but it can be too CLEAN. if 1349 had everything spotless like dev they'd view it as bad production, because it doesn't work with their music. so production depends on music =]

This is also how I see things. And in the end it's also the aim of production, to have something that fits the music. It's meant to elevate the music to an even higher level in a way by brining out the qualities of it.
While mixing and mastering my own band I strived for a middleground kind of since we play black/death metal. The sound quality is kind of "polished" but I purposely wanted it to retain something raw because it contributes to the whole sound. The way it gets perceived by the user then.

An album can have a production that is too "clean," yes. But to me, good production does not equal a "clean" sound! For me, good production basically means that the album has a sound that fits the atmosphere the band is trying to achieve, or the feelings they are trying to evoke. Just to give an example: I think the production on Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse" is perfect - though it's not very "clean". Also perfect: Opeth's "Blackwater Park" - this one is quite "clean".

Hope that makes sense!

I really like all the old Misfits stuff with Danzig. They had zero production and it sounds rad. Although if they were to record all there old material again they would produce the sh@? out of it. When i record my band i try my best to get the sound i want in the room (witch is very small with horrible acoustics) thus minimizing the use of effects. I think recording this way keeps the music feeling more organic. On the other hand if I did this full time i would like to explore more production techniques. As to the original question no production cant be to good but it can be to much of it which can then pull the listener away from the music and into the production. sorry for the run on sentences

I feel like it depends on the recording.

If I'm looking for some swampy sludge, then I want as little production as possible. If I'm looking for something more progressive, then I do want some good production. If I'm looking for a good thrash album I want some good production, but I still want the texture involved with it.

I'm reminded of when Tom Waits went into the studio to record Bone Machine. He started, then got furious and started kicking things around asking how he was supposed to get any texture in that sort of environment. They then moved recording to an old warehouse nearby, and now we have one of the greatest albums of all time because of that.

The above post says it all.
Take the new Hate Eternal album, Fury and Flames.
Personally, I think it sucks, just because the production doesn't fit the music. I, Monarch was far better due to the decisiveness in which it was compressed, mixed etc.
Especially for black metal, you want it to sound bad sometimes.

That's my two cents.